The World Council of Churches (WCC) has made new staff appointments during 2024, including three new commission directors. WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay warmly greeted them as they began to serve in their particular ministries.
Twenty-four students and seven teachers from the Focolare Movement joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) for Ash Wednesday prayer services, and for an introduction to the ecumenical movement.
In a visit to Cuba from 17-19 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canelat the Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana. “I was deeply impressed with our heart-to-heart meeting with the president of Cuba,” expressed Pillay.
The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO), celebrated its 75th anniversary, held a webinar in New York City on 27 October entitled “UN-NGO Relations: Enhancing Multilateralism, Protecting NGO Access, Civic Space, and Democratic Discourse.”
On 28th August, during a visit with Ambassador Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the UN Office, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with those making efforts to lift the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by reopening the Lachin corridor.
On 17 May 2023 in Moscow, a WCC delegation consisting of general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, director for International Affairs Mr Peter Prove, and programme executive for Ecumenical Relations and Faith and Order Dr Vasile-Octavian Mihoc met with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
A group of Ecumenical Accompaniers completed their service in Palestine and Israel, handing their ministry over to the next wave, and celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at the same time.
After postponing their unique ecumenical pilgrimage of peace to South Sudan, world Christian leaders will travel to the world’s youngest nation in February.
Peace prayers and a concert in South Korea on 27 July marked the lead-up to World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly while expressing the fervent hope for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
Rev. Prof. Dr Heike Springhart is bishop of Landeskirche in Baden. Below, she offers reflections on her hopes for the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly and, more broadly, how ecumenical relationships can help us all sustain a sense of hope during these challenging times.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) had a pivotal place at a conference organized by the Foundation Dialogue for Peace in Geneva, drawing international speakers that would gladden the organizers of any world gathering as they interlinked trying to feed and heal people and get peace during war.
A new “Local Changemakers Course” is being released by the Freedom of Religion or Belief Learning Platform to help empower local communities in their fight for human rights, particularly freedom of religion or belief.
To accompany the churches and people of Sudan in the midst of significant changes and challenges in the country, a delegation of World Council of Churches (WCC) along with its ecumenical partners is undertaking an ecumenical solidarity visit to Sudan.
On the UN International Day of Conscience, 5 April, the World Council of Churches (WCC) releases a new volume of “I Belong – Biblical Reflections on Statelessness”. The day highlights the need for the creation of conditions of stability, peaceful coexistence, respect for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, language or religion.
A “human chain” singing for peace and a new hymn by Swedish composer and pastor Per Harling are just two of many creative ways people are expressing their yearning for peace.
As the national three-year programme “Disestablishment 150” drew to a close, the Church of Ireland is looking back on highlights from a commemoration of the historic milestone in which the Church of Ireland was made wholly independent of the Church of England, and was no longer the official state church.
As the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca congratulated them and expressed solidarity with their ongoing fight for justice and peace.
At a conference to promote freedom of religion and preservation of spiritual, cultural and historical heritage, held at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin from 8-12 September, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca reflected on “Holy Places and our Human Identities.”
An upcoming international symposium, scheduled for 13-15 September, will explore some key questions to help us map a more just digital future, a future that “increasingly calls for deeper reflection and new thinking in philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence, and theology,” said World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Ioan Sauca.
When I read about Zerubbabel launching efforts in rebuilding Jerusalem I nod with a smile. Zechariah 4:10 says: “... Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" (New Living Translation). Zerubbabel reminds me of a small nation that also started humbly, but whose efforts, despite the choir of doubters, have been greatly blessed by the Lord.