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What sights and sounds tell Hiroshima’s A-bomb story today?

Hiroshima, 6 August 2015 - What sights and sounds told this city’s story today? A graveside scream at dawn? The penetrating gong that sounded to mark the moment the atomic bomb exploded 70 years ago? Candle lanterns floating toward the sea on the evening tide? Or a young pastor’s confession, “I feel guilty”, because his family was spared 70 years ago by a last-minute twist of fate?

“The world must be freed of nuclear weapons”

“The first thing that is required of us is to live the courage of our convictions. For the World Council of Churches, our conviction is that the world must be freed of nuclear weapons,” said the Rev. Dr Sang Chang, WCC president for Asia, in her address at the Nuclear Disarmament Symposium held in Hiroshima.

German bishop pledges ecumenical push for prohibition of nuclear weapons

Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and a member of the church leaders’ pilgrimage to Japan on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings, pressed the case for the Humanitarian Pledge against nuclear weapons at the Hiroshima Day rally on 6 August 2015.

A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Korea: Exodus from division and nuclear threats

The summer in Korea is a lush and attractive season for vacationers. Yet it is far more than that. It is a period haunted by heavy historical memories. June 25 marks the day of the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950; July 27, the day of the conclusion of armistice in 1953; and August 15, the day of liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945, which immediately led to the division between North and South by the Soviet Union and the United States.

New Humanitarian Pledge to Ban Nuclear Weapons advances as troubled treaty stalls

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

Interfaith initiative at UN calls 191 governments to ban nuclear weapons

“Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the values upheld by our respective faith traditions”, representatives of some 50 Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish organizations said on 1 May. The inter-religious statement came in a joint call to the 191 governments participating in the world’s largest disarmament treaty. The call, co-sponsored by the WCC, was made during civil society presentations to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City.

Una iniciativa interreligiosa en las Naciones Unidas insta a 191 gobiernos a prohibir las armas nucleares

«Las armas nucleares son incompatibles con los valores de nuestras respectivas tradiciones religiosas», declararon los representantes de en torno a 50 organizaciones cristianas, budistas, musulmanas y judías el pasado 1 de mayo. La declaración interreligiosa constituye un llamamiento común dirigido a los gobiernos de los 191 Estados que forman parte del tratado de desarme más importante del mundo. Este llamamiento, auspiciado conjuntamente con el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias, fue realizado durante las presentaciones de la sociedad civil en la conferencia de examen sobre el Tratado de No Proliferación Nuclear (TNP) que se celebró en Nueva York.

WCC gives thanks for the life of Ninan Koshy

The WCC gives thanks for the life and work of renowned academic, theologian and political analyst Dr Ninan Koshy. A former executive secretary and director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Koshy died at the age of 81 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India on 4 March.

Ninan Koshy

WCC tribute to Dr Ninan Koshy, former executive secretary and director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

General Secretary

WCC mourns the death of Leopoldo Niilus

The WCC mourns the death of Leopoldo J. Niilus, former director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), renowned lawyer, peace negotiator and author of several writings on human rights and international affairs.

Richard von Weizsäcker will be remembered for his voice of justice and peace

Former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, died on 31 January. He was 94. “The WCC remembers with deep gratitude Dr Richard von Weizsäcker for the gifts he brought to his church, the wider ecumenical movement and the world,” wrote the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, in a letter to von Weizsäcker’s wife Dr Marianne Baroness von Weizsäcker.