Search results

A World Council of Churches (WCC) Easter Initiative will lift up the call to roll away the heavy stone of violence, war and occupation, pain and suffering, and to remind the world of what is needed to bring about peace, to transform swords into ploughshares.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, who, in a 1 March statement, condemned an attack against civilians that occurred while residents of Gaza gathered for food aid.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Jerusalem Liaison Office Advisory Group convened on 20 February under the leadership of WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay. 

Israeli president Isaac Herzog formally received World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay on 20 February, to discuss the current situation in Israel and Palestine, and the war in Gaza. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay and delegation met with Sheikh Azzam Khatib, director of Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem on 18 February, reiterating the WCC’s commitment to maintaining Jerusalem as a city of all three Abrahamic religions. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank, on 19 February, urging an end to the “seemingly endless cycle of violence and suffering.” 

During a time of war, struggle, and pain, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is accompanying the churches and the people in Palestine and Israel on their journey with prayer, action, and hope for a better future.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem on 17 February, and was received with gratitude “at this difficult and complicated time for all the peoples of this region, and especially for the Christian community of the Holy Land,” said His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in a welcome address. 

Member churches, religious leaders and local Christian groups in Palestine and Israel—as well as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli president Isaac Herzog—will meet with World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay as he visits the area beginning 16 February. 

The first installment of the World Council of Churches Seven Weeks for Water Lenten series is available. Penned by Bishop Dr Munib Younan, bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the reflection is entitled “Water for peace in the Middle East region.” 

Six ecumenical accompaniers have returned to Palestine and Israel, resuming in-person operations for the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Ecumenical accompaniers, who were evacuated beginning of October 2023, had been continuing their support and accompaniment online. 

Members of Geneva’s churches gathered in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, where the World Council of Churches has its offices, for prayers and hymns to mark the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed in the northern hemisphere from 18 to 25 January each year.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay marked 11 January as a “significant moment for justice and the rule of law,” as public hearings commenced in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on allegations against the State of Israel of violations of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.