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Image of neighbourhood in rubbles after a bomb hits the ground.

WCC condemns killing of aid workers in Gaza

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay condemned the killing of aid workers in Gaza, and extended condolences to the families and friends who are in shock and mourning upon hearing the news that an Israeli airstrike killed seven people working for World Central Kitchen.

03 April 2024
Feature story
Image of rubble after a bomb hits the ground.

Words of steadfastness ring from the rubble

“We won’t leave Gaza as long as there is a standing church.” 

“We will not be the last Christians living in Gaza.” “

“We lost everything, but we can’t lose our mission and our belonging to this place dear to our hearts.”

“Christianity started here and will continue to be here.”  

These are the words people are uttering as Nader Abu Amsha, executive director of Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches (DSPR-MECC), tries to help them simply survive the next day. 

21 March 2024
News
Destroyed building

WCC calls for immediate end to brutal violence in Gaza

As a year of exceptional and increasing conflict draws to a close, and as we pray for peace for all in 2024, “that prospect seems nowhere more remote than for the suffering and traumatized people of Gaza,” said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay. 

30 December 2023
Feature story
Palestine-2022-Hillert-20221122_AH2_3897.jpg

With no ID card in Jerusalem, 26-year-old says “I lost my right to live a normal life”

Twenty-six-year-old Samyah* has no ID card—not Palestinian or Israeli. Born in the West Bank, she once had a Jerusalem ID card after her father but it was revoked. She found out about the revocation when she was 16 and thought had the opportunity to travel with her school to Switzerland. She could not travel. Since then, Samyah and her family have been struggling to regain her Jerusalem ID card.

14 December 2022
Interview
Humberto Shikiya

In Argentina, “Serving a Wounded World” is a hopeful call to collaborate

Prof. Dr h.c. Humberto Martin Shikiya, vice president of the Regional Ecumenical Advisory and Service Center (CREAS) In Argentina, reflects on how “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond” is being received as a hopeful call to collaborate ecumenically and interreligiously. The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue jointly published “Serving a Wounded World” to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

02 August 2021
Interview
Dr Michel Abs

In Lebanon, “without peace there is no justice”

When Dr Michel Abs, secretary general of the Middle East Council of Churches, speaks about living conditions in Lebanon, his compassion for his people—and his passion for peace—brim over. In a video interview with the World Council of Churches, he honestly shared his deepest concerns about the current socio-economic crisis in his nation, and how churches are helping.

21 July 2021
Blog post
Two volunteers prepare meals for homeless people in Porto Alegre, Brazil. 

Hoping against hope

The same week Brazil reached half a million deaths by COVID-19, my parents got the first dose of the vaccine. On my way to work, I pass through a vaccination post full of people, and through a cemetery full of grief. The past year and few months were a mix of fear, indignation and anger for me. But also a time where I saw generosity and hope bloom.

30 June 2021
Blog post
indigenous ceremony in Brazil

Indigenous peoples and the pandemic in the land of inequalities

476 million indigenous people live around the world, of which 11.5% live in our Latin American region. In these years that we are going from the COVID 19 pandemic in our territories (indigenous or tribal at the Latin American level), the presence of many extractive companies, mainly uranium and lithium, has increased, land traffickers and among other monoculture companies with fires for the cultivation of oil palm, logging, putting vulnerable peoples at greater risk than what is already experienced.

04 June 2021
News
Dr Souraya Bechealany, secretary general of the Middle East Council of Churches. Photo: MECC

Hope prevails in times of crisis in Lebanon

The fatal blast in Beirut last month became yet another blow to an already plagued country. In recent months, a financial crisis with a free-falling currency and rising unemployment has further undermined the Lebanese economy. Add to that one million Syrian refugees and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the contours of a fragile nation facing monumental challenges emerge.

14 September 2020
News
Grassroots organization CONFENIAE translated COVID-19 information and regulations released by the Ecuadorian government into the languages of various Amazonian cultures to help inform and protect Indigenous communities. Photo: CONFENIAE

Christian communicators create fund to support lifesaving community media

The World Association for Christian Communication is creating a rapid response fund to help support grassroots community media outlets that provide accurate, trusted coronavirus-related information to vulnerable people who often cannot access mainstream media. Individuals and organisations are encouraged to contribute to the fund.

16 April 2020