Search results

An international conference held at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Nikos Kotzias, has gathered around 70 prominent religious, political and academic figures in Athens, Greece, this week.

To achieve just peace in the Middle East, “it is very adequate to focus on what would maintain and reinforce the cultural and religious diversity that has distinguished this region for long centuries,” said the WCC general secretary.

The role of Christian unity in today’s world was explored by the Rev. Dr Anders Wejryd, Archbishop emeritus of the Church of Sweden and president for Europe of the WCC, in his speech at an international conference in Tirana, Albania.

In Taizé, the week-long Gathering for a New Solidarity, for solidarity with the poor and excluded, reached its climax on the weekend of 15-16 August. The ecumenical community is celebrating in 2015 the seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundation by Roger Schutz, as well as the one hundredth anniversary of his birth (on 12 August 1915). Also 16 August was the tenth anniversary of his death.

“From the very beginning, women in the ecumenical movement have been raising the question of who is missing around the table and why,” said Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, speaking at the Latin American Congress on Gender and Religion.

In a letter issued from Bogota, Colombia, local and international Christian leaders have demanded a bilateral ceasefire between the Colombian government and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), urging that peace talks be resumed.

“The member churches of the World Council of Churches have pledged themselves to stand against all genocides, wherever they happen,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the council (WCC), on the morning of 10 June after a solemn service of remembrance at the Armenian Genocide Memorial and Museum overlooking the capital city of Yerevan. The service took place in the context of the one-hundredth anniversary of an era of great suffering following mass arrests, executions and deportation of Armenians beginning on 24 April 1915.

Ecumenical efforts led by the WCC continue to encourage peace in Ukraine, where a fragile cease-fire is daily tested by violence in the eastern part of the country.

The WCC has hailed news of a resumption of talks between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders on the longstanding division of the island of Cyprus.

Amidst intimidation, illegal arrests, disappearances, torture and killings in Tanah Papua resulting from tensions between the Indonesian authorities and the Papuan pro-liberation groups, churches seek justice, peace, dignity and security for the Papuans.

The Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), discussed the churches and peacemaking challenges during a meeting in Moscow 22 April with Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, and with Metropolitan Hilarion, chair of the Russian Orthodox Church’s department of external church relations. This is their second visit in the past year. There were two issues on the agenda: violence against Christian minorities and Ukraine.

The newly published issue of Current Dialogue is now available online. Along with key documents from the WCC 10th Assembly, the issue includes several strong pieces addressing some thorny issues in contemporary inter-religious encounter and dialogue, including the recent Malaysian prohibition of Christian use of the name Allah for God, the relationship of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, the particular difficulties in dialogue among the Abrahamic traditions, and the limits of dialogue itself.

The adverse impact of business activities on the lives of members of the local population in Colombia and El Salvador was highlighted by the WCC-sponsored participants at the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.

A former WCC official, Rev. Charles Harper, has been honoured with the Order Comendador de Mayo, a high decoration of the Argentine government for his emblematic legacy of struggles for human rights in the ecumenical movement.

Around 400 international participants representing diverse religious traditions at the Sant’Egidio community's 28th International Meeting of People and Religions in Antwerp, Belgium, focused on the theme “Peace is the Future”. The meeting featured dialogue, prayers and reflections on cultures and religions, including on 9 September an address from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Around 400 people met at the Temple de la Fusterie in Geneva, Switzerland to participate in an inter-religious vigil on 20 August expressing solidarity with the persecuted religious communities in Iraq during this time of conflict in the country.

The first full meeting of the new Central Committee of the WCC, a chief governing body of the Council, began on 2 July in Geneva, Switzerland. Prayers, official addresses from the leadership of the WCC and welcome greetings from the Swiss churches marked the opening of the WCC Central Committee meeting – all set to focus on the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace” through the coming week.

For the National Council of Churches of Brazil (CONIC), the World Cup offers a unique opportunity to provide pastoral care and highlight understanding about Brazil.

An “inter-generational dialogue on faith, culture, HIV and sexual reproductive health and rights” was initiated on 11 March in New York City by the World YWCA in partnership with the WCC and other international organizations. The dialogue was organized as a side event at the United Nations 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

“The immediate end of the suffering of the people in Syria must now be the focus for all parties in the Geneva 2 talks,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said in a meeting today, 14 February in Geneva with members of the Syrian opposition. And “this includes all parties in the conflict,” he added.