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From 4 to 9 December 2023, thousands of people convened in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the 22nd International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA). Scientists, medical experts, advocates, people living with HIV, and civil society organizations came together under the theme “AIDS IS NOT OVER: Address inequalities; accelerate inclusion and innovation.” Participants from many faith traditions were a meaningful part of many of these representative groups but also took up a space of their own.

Religious and traditional leaders in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) participated in online consultations on the SADC Model Law on gender-based violence.

Religious leaders are participating in online training on male engagement in Zimbabwe, 12-16 July. The participants are drawn from diverse faith communities and will come up with action plans to enhance their work with boys and men.

“When the music changes, so must the dance,” counselled Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary at the Africa Association of United Methodist Theological Institutions Anglophone Group virtual conference on 9-10 April. Phiri gave a keynote address at the conference organized by Africa University, a Methodist-affiliated university in Zimbabwe.

Online training for church leaders in Zimbabwe is helping them find creative, positive theologies to navigate the many challenging facets of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using lessons learned from building health-competent faith communities and responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, African church leaders are doing their best to help their communities cope with the novel coronavirus.

Young African clergy, theologians and laypersons are eager to engage with the challenging issues facing their continent and the world. This became clear in a recent essay competition for authors below 35 years by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC).

Working with boys and men is critical to the success of the UNAIDS Fast Track agenda, said Pierre Somse, UNAIDS senior advisor for Fast Track Innovation, speaking at a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe.

A delegation of church leaders from three continents led by the general secretary of the World Council of Churches was invited on a solidarity visit to Zimbabwe 17-20 May. The purpose of the visit was to show support for the churches in Zimbabwe in their peaceful efforts for the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe, and their work for a national dialogue with the government, political parties and other organizations.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe yesterday leading a delegation of church leaders from Europe, Africa and North America. In a 19 May sermon at an ecumenical service in Harare, Zimbabwe, World Council of Churches Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit questioned our collective perception of being at the top versus the bottom.

Meeting under the theme of the International Women’s Day, #BeBoldforChange, the St Dorcas United Methodist Church Dzivarasekwa Circuit in Harare, Zimbabwe, brought together on 2 April diverse actors to recommit to the struggle for gender justice.

“Statelessness renders people’s vulnerability to abuse and to denial of their rights invisible to national authorities. In this sense the right to a nationality is a threshold issue for access to protection of all other human rights - almost a 'right to have rights'”, said Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), following a regional training workshop on birth registration and gender discriminatory nationality laws in Africa, organized by the WCC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11–13 May.

To strengthen the work of churches in achieving gender justice, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches has launched the Gender and Faith Network. The network is a movement of faith leaders in Zimbabwe committed to build a church that understands the cause of gender justice and supports local communities with deeper insight and sensitivity.

Grateful for the opportunity of working for a global fellowship of the churches, the two new interns at the WCC aspire to use their personal and professional experiences from Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the WCC’s work on gender justice and health issues.