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It is a bright and crisp Sunday morning in mid-May in Ilulissat on Greenland’s west coast, more than 300 kilometres north of the Arctic circle. As usual, the sea is scattered with glittering icebergs in different shapes and sizes. This morning, like most mornings this time of the year, new formations of frozen water, calved from the Greenland icecap at the bottom of Ilulissat Icefjord, have made their way out into the Disko Bay and shaped up right in front of Zion Church, one of Church of Greenland’s two churches in use in Ilulissat. Built in 1779, this dark-brown wooden jewel is the oldest church in the country and a natural meeting place for locals.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit offered a warm congratulations to Bishop Miguel Ayuso upon his nomination as cardinal.

At a well-attended showcase in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday afternoon, the Ecumenical Water Network took a step further towards achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 by bringing together faith actors with key people from the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit extended a warm congratulations to Dr Azza Karam, who has been elected as new secretary general of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

The 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace is convening in Lindau, Germany, this week. The multi-religious gathering is being organized from 20-23 August in partnership with the Foundation Peace Dialogue of the World Religions and Civil Society.

Young people are trailblazers, pioneers, visionaries and leaders who have the potential to create a positive, sustainable legacy for future generations on a global scale.
On 12 August, International Youth Day, youth led a TED-style talk and discussion in Geneva, with five young speakers from different parts of the world, four virtually and one live. The stories and experiences shared connected them to theme “Transforming Education,” while inspiring the audience for a call to action.

In light of International Youth Day on 12 August, the World Council of Churches (WCC), Lutheran World Federation and the World Student Christian Federation invited youth to celebrate the day at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. The event promoted a shared understanding of inclusion, acknowledging the gifts and addressing the common concerns and challenges of young people around the world.

Church leaders and young people are having both lively discussions and deep reflection at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute this week as they participate in a seminar on equipping each other for Christian witness in a multi-cultural and multi-faith world.

With honest sharing and storytelling at its centre, participants were already reporting that the seminar is an active, exciting - and yet safe - place to share. Music and prayer are an integral part of the programme as well.

The International Ecumenical Fellowship (IEF) held its 45th Conference in Krakow, Poland, 22-29 July under the theme “Love of Christ Compels Us.” The gathering drew nearly 200 participants from Europe, including the Ukraine, as well as from Colombia

What might be termed “an authentic interreligious encounter” is also, more simply put, a question of what it means to belong. Eleven students at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Bossey Ecumenical Institute deeply explored this question as they completed a Certificate in Advanced Studies in Interreligious Studies course.

An ecumenical delegation composed of representatives from the Conference of European Churches and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of the European Union met in Helsinki on 12 July with Pekka Haavisto, Finnish minister of Foreign Affairs, to exchange on the priorities of the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council.

Archbishop Job of Telmessos, who serves as permanent representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches (WCC), met with the WCC News and describes receiving an extraordinary gift from Pope Francis on 29 June.

When he was asked last year to take over as vicar in the parish of Ilulissat, on Greenland’s west coast, Loqqi Fleischer was a bit anxious about how the transition from his smaller hometown Uummannaq, further north along the coastline, would work out. Nevertheless, he took on the challenge and was warmly welcomed right away in the new environment.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted a Sikh-Christian dialogue on 5 July with the theme “Pursuing Peace in a Pluralistic World” to commemorate the 550th birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first guru of the Sikhs.

In an encounter with Dr Syafiq A. Mughni, Special Envoy of the President of Indonesia for Interfaith and Intercivilizational Dialogue and Cooperation, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed his appreciation for the Special Envoy’s promotion of human rights, and stressed the WCC’s commitment to cooperation in confronting xenophobia and Islamophobia. “We have to see human rights as universal principles”, said Tveit. “It is our duty as human beings and also as Christians to fight for the rights of everybody”.

About 65 scholars of Buddhist-Christian relations gathered in St Ottilien, near Eresing, Germany for a conference to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Rev. Dr Lynn A. de Silva (1919-1982), a pioneer of Christian Buddhist dialogue. Organised by the European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies in association with the World Council of Churches (WCC), the conference focused on the theme “Buddhist-Christian Encounter – A Visionary Approach”.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) was addressing ecological concerns, including climate change, “way before it was fashionable,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said at a recent presentation on the Green Village, the new development concept for the property on which the Ecumenical Centre now stands.

Young students from all over the world were welcomed to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland on Tuesday for the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interreligious Studies.
The theme of the 2018/2019 academic year is “Engaging for just and participatory societies - belongingness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”.