Churches and Christian communities worldwide are invited to use the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 resources to pray together for the unity among churches throughout the year.
Churches are expressing solidarity with refugees in Lampedusa, the Italian island on which thousands of migrants arrived last week, overloading local resources.
As a search continued for missing migrants after a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Greece, the World Council of Churches (WCC) conveyed prayers to the families of victims, and to the churches in Greece and elsewhere that are responding.
On 20 May 2022, a group of us, 14 pilgrims from different parts of the world (Kenya, Brussels, Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, Poland, Rome, Korea, Canada, Fiji, Australia, London, Scotland, and Geneva—a very diverse group) gathered in Palermo, Italy for a Pilgrim Team Visit on the theme of migration.
From 31 May to 3 June, representatives from the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group, Working Group on Climate Change, and the Young People in the Ecumenical Movement of the World Council of Churches formed a Pilgrim Team Visit to indigenous Sami communities in the south of Norway.
All are invited to celebrate the result of the World Association for Christian Communication’s (WACC) five-month, cross-regional journalist training program on migration and refugee issues via an online presentation on 9 June.
Three World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrim Team Visits, one to Italy, a second to Armenia and a third to Norway, are continuing the WCC’s accompaniment for communities in their quest for justice and peace under the theme of “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” through the lenses of post-war trauma healing, gender justice, and migration.
The Central Mediterranean route is the overseas crossing from North Africa to Italy. Those migrating on this route generally aim to reach Italian shores but leave from a variety of North African countries bordering the Mediterranean. Though in past years most migrants have departed from Libya, which is a destination for migrants as well as a transit country, there is also a proportionally small but growing number of departures from Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria.
A new report and resource kit to address hateful content online has been published by WACC Europe, the European region of the World Association for Christian Communication.
After more than ten years heading the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit says this is the time that "we should remind one another that we believe in God as the “Good shepherd” who promised to be with us also in times of crisis,” especially in this time of the global COVID-19 crisis.
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.
Citing an “appalling record” of failure to rescue refugees at sea, the Evangelical Church in Germany, along with other faith-based and civil society groups, are calling for better solutions.
Rev. Luca Maria Negro, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, has been instrumental in founding the Humanitarian Corridors programme, an ecumenical project for safe passages for migrants developed by the federation’s Mediterranean Hope team with the Comunità di Sant’Egidio in 2015. Humanitarian Corridors have since been opened in France, Belgium and Andorra for a total of nearly 3,000 arrivals in Europe.
The Protestant Church in Germany and Palermo (Italy) Mayor Leoluca Orlando have issued a joint declaration calling for a European distribution mechanism for boat refugees.
Currently there is no Europe-wide distribution mechanism to accommodate refugees rescued in the Mediterranean in the European Union. The declaration calls for a political emergency solution this summer, and urges a group of European Union member states to act as a “coalition of the willing” and develop a sustainable migration policy.
Because faith communities that work closely with the UN children’s agency are deeply involved with young people on the move, they can play a crucial role in applying the global compacts on safe migration and refugees.
“Open a European humanitarian corridor,” urged Italian Protestant churches and the Community of Sant’Egidio in a letter to Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
The Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, Italian Episcopal Conference, Waldensian Board, and Community of Sant’Egidio signed a joint declaration, entitled “Let’s remain human,” that encourages a spirit of humanity and solidarity towards migrants.
Shortly after Sea-Watch saw a legal victory in being allowed to rescue stranded migrants, the moderator of the Waldensian board expressed thanks and vowed to press forward in welcoming so-called strangers.
