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“We must avoid stereotypes,” said Rev. Dr Nikolaus Schneider, chair of the council that coordinates relations and activities within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). As diverse groups encounter one another in the contemporary dynamics of world Christianity, he added, the key questions are whether the calling of the church is being fulfilled by a given community, and whether Jesus Christ is to be found there.

Dr Katharina Kunter came upon the World Council of Churches (WCC) as an object of research through the discipline of Cold War studies, analyzing the encounter of Christian bodies in East and West from the end of the second world war to the fall of the Berlin Wall. She soon came to realize that the interplay of “northern” churches with the global South was equally influential in transforming attitudes and practices of the WCC and its member churches during those decades.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit (left) met Thursday with  Rigmor Aasrud (right), Norway Minister of Government Administration, Reform & Church Affairs, at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva to provide background on the work of the WCC.

A groundbreaking agreement was announced Wednesday making all students attending the WCC’s Ecumenical Institute at Bossey eligible to receive an accredited certificate from the University of Geneva.

Unity among Chinese Protestants is an important factor in the rapid growth of the church in China, the general secretary of the China Christian Council, the Rev. Kan Baoping, said during a visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

The future of theological education in Asia was addressed during a meeting of the Foundation for Theological Education in South East Asia (FTESEA) in the US city of Philadelphia, 4-5 October 2010. The FTESEA is preparing to celebrate its 75 th anniversary in 2012 and is looking back to years of creative partnership with both the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) and the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland.

by Juan Michel (*)

While peace is a commonly held value within Judaism, Islam and Christianity, other religious values can often become sources of conflict. In order to build community beyond faith boundaries a group of young adults from each of the three faith groups spent a week focusing on the common value of peace recently.

In times of exploding budget deficits and unemployment figures, migrants are often used as scapegoats for all the ailings and failings of society. In such a context it is the task of the church to uphold the human rights and dignity of all.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will pay an official visit to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on 27-29 June.

Church ecumenical officers play a key role in the advancement of ecumenism at a time when resources are scarce and inward-looking tendencies thrive.

Catholicos Aram I, head of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit met at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Switzerland, on 6 April. It was their first meeting since Tveit entered office in January 2010.

During his first visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, Turkey, and on the occasion of the Feast of the Cross on Sunday, 7 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, "On the cross Christ stretched out his arms to embrace the world. The grace of the cross unites us all."

"The prayer of Jesus that his disciples may be one so that the world may believe (John 17:21) takes on new urgency in view of the challenges peoples and churches are facing today", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, in welcoming a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The endowment of two new scholarship funds geared towards facilitating studies at the Ecumenical Institute of the WCC was celebrated at the graduation ceremony for the 61st session of the institute's Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies on 3 February.

The election of a new general secretary for the organization and the selection of the venue for its next assembly were highlights of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee meeting that ended yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland.

With prayers, singing, gifts and speeches of thanks, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee offered its farewell to outgoing general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia on Sunday 30 August.