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An Ecumenical Youth Gathering held 27 August helped to usher in the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly with a spirit of praying, dancing, and singing, as more than 200 young people drew together at St Stephen’s Church in Karlsruhe, Germany, to assert an inclusive assembly ahead.

As the Finnish Mission Council celebrated its centenary on 12 October in Tampere, Finland, the Lutheran Archbishop of Finland, Dr Tapio Luoma, celebrated the witness in mission of the earlier missionaries and generations. Luoma also urged every generation to find answers to the question of how to live fully as a disciple of Jesus and fulfil his commission.

As the Finnish Mission Council observed its centenary, Dr Risto Jukko, director of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, spoke about the relation between Finnish mission work and the international mission movement.

At WCC’s ecumenical workcamps in the late 1950s, a young Govaert Chr.Kok of the Netherlands would learn lessons for life – and encounter a very special person.

In 2018 we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches. In order to create a lively firsthand account of the ecumenical fellowship and of our shared journey, member churches have contributed stories of people, events, achievements and even failures, all of which have deepened our collective search for Christian unity. This story was written by Olle Eriksson, a Namibian who worked for 35 years (1968 – 2003) with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission and Lutheran World Federation.

Last week, young Jewish, Muslim and Christian students learned about communication and peacebuilding during a workshop at the Ecumenical Centre, all with the hope of serving as peacemakers in their own contexts. The session was led by Marianne Ejdersten, director of WCC Communication.

As young people earned an interreligious studies certificate at the World Council of Churches Bossey Institute, they completed their three-week course with unified thoughts on promoting peace. In a communique issued on 13 July, they identified themselves as Jews, Christians and Muslims - children of Abraham - with a unique openness.

Katariina Väisänen from Finland is used to ecumenical experiences, but was pleased at a course on peacebuilding in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Geneva on how much she could share with her fellow participants due to their common humanity.

With aspirations to learn and contribute to the work of the WCC inter-religious dialogue and cooperation department, Matias Ikkala from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has commenced working this week as a WCC intern.

“The senseless war in South Sudan must end now,” said the WCC general secretary, following the pastoral visit of a high-level ecumenical delegation to local churches in Juba, South Sudan on 2 May.

Embracing the holistic view of mission as “koinonia” (being in communion with God, all peoples and the whole of creation) has become more than bringing the good news to others, said Kyriaki Avtzi, the WCC programme executive on evangelism, while addressing the theme “Your Kingdom Come” at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland partnership consultation.

In a World Council of Churches (WCC) governance meeting, The Church: Towards a Common Vision, a convergence text of the Commission on Faith and Order, was officially presented by the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.