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During an ecumenical morning prayer held 15 May, the World Council of Churches (WCC) staff and partners observed the UN International Day of Living Together in Peace, holding in prayer many nations across the world facing challenges to living together in harmony.

A Global Peace Prayer on 22 March will draw Christians together in hope for a better future. A communique from a prayer planning committee explained that Christians are called into prayer and advocacy for peace. “In a global context where war and violence abound, the practice of peace has become even more urgent,” reads the message.

Rev. Fr Dr Lawrence Iwuamadi is dean of the Ecumenical Institute, the graduate school which opened its academic year this week. Below, Iwuamadi reflects on the arrival of new students at the Ecumenical Institute during this remarkable time.

From 31 January - 2 February in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, hosted a group of church leaders at Antelias who explored a more responsive and inclusive ecumenical vision.

As of mid-September, the 2019-2020 academic year is officially underway at the WCC Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey.

During an open air common prayer event held in Nelson Mandela Park in Kingston, Jamaica on 4 October, women and men processed and sang, most of them dressed in black as they renewed and expanded their commitment to the Thursdays in Black campaign seeking a world free from rape and violence.

What have we achieved in building a just community of women and men? What must we still do? How can we strengthen ecumenical collaboration in reading the signs of our times in order to map the future direction of our work?

The WCC Executive Committee met in Amman, Jordan from 17-23 November to approve the 2018 plan and budget and prepare for renewal of the WCC strategic plan. The Executive Committee also discerned the way forward for the WCC’s involvement in Palestine and Israel by learning more about the particular situation in Jordan and the Middle East, then discussing the challenges of the churches and the WCC response. The Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, All Palestine and Jordan, Theophilos III, welcomed the group.

Speakers opening the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee meeting in Amman, Jordan from 17-23 November, emphasized peace, justice and unity as the WCC discerns its way forward and evaluates its past work.

The World Council of Churches organised in June 2017 a pilgrimage in the Holy Land for eight young Christians from all over the world. Participants said it was a unique experience to discover biblical and spiritual places.

Speaking in Bethlehem on the evening of 8 December, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reflected on the light from the very first Christmas in the very same town, and what that light means in a global search for just peace.

Youth are not the future leaders of tomorrow. They are the leaders of today, as they fearlessly lead efforts for justice and peace in their societies.

Violence in the name of religion echoed in the distance, demanding a response, through the November 2015 meeting of the 25-member Executive Committee of the WCC in Bogis-Bossey and nearby Geneva, Switzerland as it planned the work of the Council in the coming years.

The Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network of the WCC in collaboration with the Council for World Mission and International Disability Alliance hosted a two-day seminar on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Hopes and aspirations for peace were expressed on 20 September at the Peace Palace in the Netherlands, site of a “Walk of Peace” held on the second day of the International Week of Peace. The event was organized by the Council of Churches in the Netherlands and PAX, a Dutch peace organization, in cooperation with local churches in The Hague.

Christians need a "spirituality of resistance" to face oppression, violence and experiences of defeat, the WCC general secretary said in an address at Germany’s biggest Protestant gathering.

New members of the WCC Commission on Youth (ECHOS) have gathered for the first time, for a four-day meeting hosted by the Coptic Church in Cairo, Egypt.

The WCC remembers today, 24 April, the 1.5 million Armenian victims – children, women and men – who died 100 years ago.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.

Should robots make life and death decisions? Religious leaders are asked to tell governments “Never”.