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“It was with sadness that we received the news of the passing of Prof. Dr Julio Hector de Santa Ana, a reference of ecumenical theology in a liberating perspective,” said Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). De Santa Ana passed away in Geneva, Switzerland, on 17 April.

During a 26 June service, participants from all over the world celebrated the 127th anniversary of the World Student Christian Federation in an 18th-century baroque church, Sophienkirche in Berlin, Germany.

A lively webinar ushered in the long-anticipated publication “A History of the Desire for Christian Unity: Vol 1: Dawn of Ecumenism,” the first of three volumes on the history of ecumenism. 

Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon became the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme executive for Church Relations in March 2020—just when the COVID-19 pandemic began to underscore the importance of bringing the WCC global fellowship together in new and creative ways.  

As Rev. Marc Gallopin welcomes the new Bossey students to the Reformed congregation in Céligny, Switzerland, this sunny Sunday, 13 October, the name of another Céligny pastor comes to my mind: Arnold Mobbs.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Theological Education programme has, for the second time, contributed to ecumenical capacity development in Morocco. The WCC helped instruct a course on contextual theologies and African theologies at the Ecumenical Theological Institute Al Mowafaqa in Rabat.

“Mission is not an action or activity we can choose. It is an expression of daily life. It belongs to the whole church and is not the function of just a few or of an agency,” says Father Ioan Sauca, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

More than 220 church leaders representing over 20 churches from Belgium, France, Luxemburg and Switzerland are meeting from 27-31 October in the French city of Lyon for the first Francophone Christian Forum.

The archbishop Dr Nathan Söderblom, an ecumenical forerunner and messenger of peace in war-torn Europe, challenged a deeply divided Christianity 100 years ago. Against all odds, the Stockholm Conference on Life and Work in 1925 gathered church leaders at a scale the world had not seen since Nicaea 1600 years earlier. And it did not end there.

As the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute 2017 (GETI’17) drew to a close in Berlin on 31 May, participants rejoiced in a sense of renewed ecumenical energy, and of fellowship across traditions, as they prepare to return to their home contexts.

The Grand Imam of Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and university, Prof. Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb, will visit the WCC to give a public lecture and participate in high-level dialogue on interreligious peacemaking. “We are honoured to welcome one of the world’s highest-ranking and most influential Muslim leaders to Geneva, and I very much look forward to his lecture and to sharing views with him on the many challenges that we as religious persons and leaders face together,” says WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Even before Rev. Dr Solomon Mepaiyeda heard about the Ecumenical Institute at Chateau de Bossey, he knew he wanted to study at a reputable ecumenical institution. “I wanted to contribute to collaborative efforts among Nigerian churches,” said Mepaiyeda, a member of the Anglican Church.

Rubem Alves of Brazil, one of the foundational thinkers behind Latin American “liberation theology”, died at the age of 80 on Saturday 19 July. This scholar, teacher, activist, psychotherapist and author is being commemorated by colleagues, former students, journalists and others, including heads of state.

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.

Religious diversity is an unavoidable reality today – and an opportunity, according to the participants of an interfaith seminar held in July at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey outside Geneva, Switzerland.