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During an ecumenical morning prayer held 15 May, the World Council of Churches (WCC) staff and partners observed the UN International Day of Living Together in Peace, holding in prayer many nations across the world facing challenges to living together in harmony.

The Church of Sweden has renewed its apology to the Sámi people, this time in Sápmi in the Luleå Cathedral.

Dr Jurjen Zeilstra is a historian and theologian. His biography “Visser 't Hooft, 1900-1985 Living for the Unity of the Church” served as a dissertation in the humanities at the Amsterdam Free University in order to receive the degree of Ph.D. in 2018. Willem Visser 't Hooft led the World Council of Churches (WCC) during its formative stages. Below, Dr Zeilstra reflects on what it was like to study the life of Visser 't Hooft.

Nowadays, any cause can be effectively promoted in a blink of an eye, with a click on a button. At virtually no cost, messages travel fast around the globe through social media and other digital platforms. For good and bad, but mostly for good. Because without it, grassroots movements, such as the Arab Spring, which started in Tunisia in 2010 and ended up toppling several governments, would have had a much harder time rallying support and getting their message across to key audiences.

Under the headline “Free to change” hundreds of Swedes gathered in the sacred cathedral in Gothenburg on 2 February to learn more about international advocacy from a faith and human rights perspective.

A full-day programme arranged by the dioceses of Skara and Gothenburg in cooperation with Church of Sweden’s youth organisation, covered a wide spectrum of pertinent issues facing the ecumenical movement.

On a Joint Day of Reflection on Ecumenical Diakonia and Sustainable Development held 1 November, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance reflected together on how the organisations work together in service to the world and how that work contributes to the broader agenda for sustainable development.

In 1968, the ecumenical movement took an important step forward when its commitment to global justice and peace was manifested at the WCC general assembly in Uppsala, Sweden. Half a century later, the Ecumenical Weekend, which kicks off on Saturday in the very same Swedish city, will not only celebrate 50 years of global ecumenism, it also raises urgent issues and new challenges facing the ecumenical movement.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will visit Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Antigua from 29 September-9 October. Tveit will be preaching, meeting with religious leaders and visiting communities.

A theological consultation in Matanzas, Cuba explored the pastoral and theological questions that the phenomenon of multiple religious belonging poses to Christian churches in Latin America.

The experience of his father’s fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 and then living alien and stateless in Sweden provides biblical theologian Hans Ucko with the touchstone of his writing about stateless persons.

Students of communication and theology will address questions of media and globalization and then explore how these relate to the theme of religion in mass media, as part of a global summer school held from 23 to 31 July in Jamaica.

Journeying from urban centres and small Pacific islands, mountain ranges and rural towns, more than 170 Indigenous people gathered this week at the mouth of the river that flows from traditional Sami lands. Their conference, “Reconciliation Processes and Indigenous Peoples: Truth, Healing and Transformation,” brought together representatives of more than two dozen Indigenous societies in connection with the WCC Central Committee meetings in Trondheim, Norway.

Almost forty years after the advent of HIV and AIDS, people around the world living with HIV still endure assaults on their dignity and basic human rights—from stigma and discrimination to denial of legal protection and even medical care.

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.

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.

Leaders and representatives from the Cuban Council of Churches, the Latin American Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches USA and the WCC have spoken out together on the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.

Churches in the United States, including member churches of the WCC, have called on the Obama administration to open up a high-level dialogue with Cuba aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

Working in alliance with churches is strategically important, said a UN representative at the recent assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches.