Participating in a Ökumenetag (ecumenical day) in Karlsruhe, Germany, on 22 April, former World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Fr Ioan Sauca reflected back on the WCC 11th Assembly, and expressed deep gratitude to the host churches.
Almost 70 women—members of World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee and staff—met together on 16 June for an hour of sharing, networking, and marking “Thursdays in Black,” the growing global campaign for a world free from rape and violence.
A conference held in Wuppertal, Germany, and online on 9-12 April published a message calling on churches across the world to not only listen more closely to the victims of human rights violations, but to act in stronger solidarity with them.
Bringing together biblical, theological and practical perspectives on human dignity, participants of the international conference in Wuppertal challenged churches for a common understanding and protection of human rights during the public panel discussion on 11 April.
Addressing the challenges for a common vision of churches on human rights today, the international conference “Christian Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights” will take place on 9-12 April in Wuppertal, Germany. Everyone is invited to follow the public session of the conference on 11 April, when a panel of the keynote speakers will bring together biblical, theological and practical perspectives on human dignity.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, in a congratulatory letter, wished God’s blessings for Präses Dr Annette Kurschus, the new chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted an interface conference on 13 October between the WCC, EKD, German Federal Foreign Office, Trans-Atlantic Network and Berlin-based diplomats to discuss the vital role that the WCC, churches and faith communities around the globe play in advancing people’s health and healing, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a symposium on digital justice drew to a close on 15 September, participants were weighing their vision for the future in a landscape fraught with injustice. Those taking part in the symposium—be they theologians, church leaders, politicians, students, journalists or professional communicators—are all in fact, “digital communicators,” and this broad array of people who care worked to hone their collective thoughts into recommendations they believe can help the world.
Besides the dangerous monopoly structures in the digital economy, there is a danger for liberty and justice as they are crucial for pluralistic democracies in the digital world, says Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Bedford-Strohm is also chairperson of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and was a keynote speaker at the opening of the symposium exploring challenges and opportunities for a more just digital future, in Berlin on 13-15 September, and co-organized by the EKD.
On Monday, 13 September, the International Symposium for Communication for Social Justice in a Digital Age will begin online at 10 am CET in Berlin, Germany and continue until 5 pm CET on Wednesday, 15 September.
The forthcoming 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is an opportunity for churches to proclaim a message of the good news of love and liberation, according the moderator of the WCC central committee, Dr Agnes Abuom.
As digital technologies permeate almost all areas of life, changing the way people live, work and relate to one another, a new publication by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) offers guidance on dealing with the digital world based on the insights of the biblical Ten Commandments.
Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, and Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop in Munich and former president of the German Bishops’ Conference, were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace.”
Germany’s main Protestant and Roman Catholic churches have announced plans for a campaign to be launched in January 2021 to encourage Christians to take a clear stand against increasing antisemitism, recognizing it also has Christian roots.
Protestants in Germany have commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, made by German church leaders to an international ecumenical delegation shortly after the Second World War, in which they confessed their failings and shortcomings in opposing National Socialism and the Third Reich.
Only a church that overcomes ethnic, racial and national hatreds can be a credible sign of freedom and reconciliation, the interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca has said in an address to mark the 75th anniversary of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt by German Protestant leaders after the Second World War.
The rescue ship Sea-Watch 4, purchased by a crowdfund led by the Evangelical Church in Germany, is ready to start operating in the Mediterranean Sea to help migrants attempting to reach Europe from North Africa.
The chairs of the German Bishops’ Conference and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany released on 22 June a statement on Germany’s Council presidency. On 1 July Germany will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“God keeps God’s promises to us human beings,” the statement reads. “And God gives us the strength to contribute our part to a successful outcome.”
The executive committee, on behalf of the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has decided, in close consultation with the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and other host churches and local partners, to postpone the 11th assembly, originally planned for September 2021 in Karlsruhe, Germany, until 2022.
