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WCC acting general secretary visits member churches in Korea

Amid rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation visited member churches in Korea to express continuing solidarity of the global ecumenical fellowship with the churches of Korea searching for peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula.

Korean church leaders reflect on reconciliation: “the people’s power should be the main strategy”

The following feature begins a series of reflections from churches in different countries on "reconciliation" in the midst of conflict and division, following the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly, Christs love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” As the WCC commits to working together as a fellowship on a Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity,” these stories explore how deepened relationships can lead to understanding and radical change.

Religious leaders in Zimbabwe participate in male engagement workshop

Religious leaders are the ultimate game changers in mobilizing men and boys to provide effective responses to HIV, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence, and to promote comprehensive sexuality education. This was an important message from a training of trainers workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 29 September. As they are rooted in community, respected, and influential, religious leaders are well-placed to promote men’s uptake of services, said local experts.

WCC, CEC letter to OSCE chairman urges avoiding further escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh

In a letter to H.E. Zbigniew Rau, OSCE chairman-in-office, and minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca and Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, jointly appeal for urgent action by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to promote a just and sustainable peace in the Caucasus, following renewed violence in the region in which more than 100 lives have already been lost.

Joint letter of the World Council of Churches and Conference of European Churches to OSCE in relation to escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh

Joint letter of Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches and Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen, general secretary the Conference of European Churches to H.E. Zbigniew Rau, OSCE chairman-in-office, appealing for urgent action by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to promote a just and sustainable peace in the Caucasus.

General Secretary

Pentecostals at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany 2022

As a Pentecostal, I have dreamed dreams” and had visions aplenty, but often it has been the WCC that brought those dreams and visions to life. What is found in this report fulfills a vision that I took with me to Geneva in 1989 in a meeting with then-general secretary Emilio Castro. During that visit, I called on the WCC to bring together 120 Pentecostal scholars from around the world to the WCC 7th Assembly known as Canberra 91.

Uppsala 1968: The times, they were a’changing

By rights, it should have been Africa. The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) First Assembly had been held in Europe (Amsterdam), the second in North America (Evanston, USA), the third in Asia (New Delhi). Hopes were raised that Africa would be the next continent to host the council. But questions arose concerning acts of violence and military conflicts in Africa throughout the 1960s, from the Biafran region in Nigeria to Zanzibar and Eritrea, from Algeria to Mozambique and Rhodesia. And so the Fourth Assembly returned to the “safety” of Europe, to Uppsala in Sweden. In one of history’s ironies, Soviet tanks would roll into Prague one month after the assembly’s close.

Strengthening Christian Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights

Perspectives from an International Consultative Process

The WCC, the Protestant Church in Germany and the United Evangelical Mission, initiated a two-year process of ecumenical study and reflection on the relationship between human dignity and human rights from biblical, theological, and victims’ perspectives, culminating in a Conference on Christian Perspectives on Human Dignity and Humans Rights held in Wuppertal (Germany) and online from 9–12 April 2022.

This publication consists of papers received from theologians, people with different academic backgrounds, experts in ethics and human rights, and human rights defenders—together with the joint message of the conference participants.

August 15th Joint South-North (North-South) Prayer for Peace & Reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula 2022

The World Council of Churches invites the global fellowship and all people of good will to join, on 15 August 2022, a prayer for peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.

Composed by the National Council of Churches in Korea, the prayer will be held on 14 August—the Sunday before Liberation Day, observed in both North and South Korea to mark the date in 1945 when Korea won independence from Japanese colonial oppression. The date was also when the peninsula was divided into two countries.

WCC acting general secretary in Ukraine: “We came here to show our solidarity”

During the recent solidarity visit in Ukraine, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation has met with various state institutions working with religious issues, listening and learning from the victims of the ongoing war and asking for support in giving permission to the members of the delegation of Ukrainian Churches to leave the country and attend the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe.