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As the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly nears, Christians across Asia are ready to engage and bring Asian concerns and perspectives to the table. Last Tuesday, a week prior to the opening of the assembly, more than 200 participants from all over the Asian continent gathered online in a pre-assembly meeting to learn more about the assembly and reflect on pertinent issues to highlight in Karlsruhe.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) focuses on final preparations for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom offered some personal reflections on her leadership role within the WCC, the importance of ecumenical work, the loss of ecumenical luminary Metropolitan Gennadios of Sasima, and the most vital part of her own Christian faith.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) Climate Working Group meets this month, the advisory body is looking forward to offering the fruits of its work for reflection and, most important, action at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe. Below, Rev. Henrik Grape, senior advisor on Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice, reflects on climate justice work in the lead-up to the assembly and beyond.

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed great concern in the wake of a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck the northern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines on 27 July.

In South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the peace and reconciliation work of pastors, priests and lay Christians remains critical for the people, as the global church and ecumenical groups amplify their concerns over the complex but separate conflicts in the two African countries.

The World Council of Churches (WCC)  has elected H.E. Metropolitan Nifon of Târgoviște, Romanian Orthodox Church, to serve as vice moderator of the central committee, fulfilling the service of the late Metropolitan Gennadios, and will serve on the leadership of the WCC central committee.

Deploring the illegal and unjustifiable war “inflicted on the people and sovereign state of Ukraine” the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee lamented “the awful and continuing toll of deaths, destruction and displacement, of destroyed relationships and ever more deeply entrenched antagonism between the people of the region, of escalating confrontation globally, of increased famine risk in food insecure regions of the world, of economic hardship and heightened social and political instability in many countries.”

In a public statement, the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee expressed grave concern for the people of Ethiopia and urged churches and organizations everywhere to answer urgent needs with humanitarian aid.

Offering a churches’ perspective during a dialogue on humanitarian aid on 10 June, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca spoke on the faith and spiritual foundations for helping one another.

In a second ecumenical roundtable meeting convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 10 June in Bossey, Switzerland, senior representatives of WCC member churches from several European countries neighboring and directly affected by the current conflict gathered to consult each other on relevant developments since the first roundtable meeting held 30 March.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, convening via videoconference from 30 May to 2 June, continued the work of planning for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe even while the members mourned the loss of longtime ecumenical luminary Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima.