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This year's “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula” will be observed on 14 August. The special day of prayer follows a visit from a delegation of the National Council of Churches in Korea and the National Council of Churches USA with USA policymakers. The delegation is advocating for a permanent peace treaty between North and South Korea.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at its meeting in Trondheim, Norway, 27 June 2016, has elected a new executive committee with 11 new members.

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.

On the occasion of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 27 May, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sent greetings, noting that this is a time when signs of peace and justice are sorely needed.

“Racism remains an issue that divides society and even families,” said Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), in a Washington DC workshop on “the theological basis for lifting the voice of the marginalized.” She noted that these dramatically relevant words were not her own, but are drawn from a WCC study on race undertaken in the 1990s.

With a background in international conflict resolution, peace-building and reconciliation, Professor Emily Welty is uniquely suited to her role as acting moderator of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs of the WCC. She facilitated the commission’s work most recently during its annual meeting in Geneva from 7 through 14 March.

The WCC has engaged with the Office for Genocide Prevention and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers to promote a regional meeting in the Americas discussing the role of religious leaders in preventing incitements to violence that may lead to infractions categorized in international law as “atrocity crimes”: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression.

Following the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea, the WCC is calling on all parties involved in the current situation on the Korean peninsula – especially South Korea, North Korea, the USA, Japan and China – to “invest in initiatives to reduce tensions, to promote dialogue and to encourage negotiations for an end to the suspended state of war, and for peaceful co-existence on the Korean peninsula, rather than measures that increase the risk of catastrophic conflict“, according to WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

“A Pilgrimage for Just Peace: Rejecting Cruelty, Creating Community, Rediscovering Divinity” was the theme in focus at the 2015 Presidential Forum at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, United States.

Important votes at the United Nations (UN) in early November give an indication of how much of the world wants new action to eliminate nuclear weapons, and how determined the main nuclear powers and their allies are to resist such long-overdue change.

Seventy years after nuclear fireballs exploded over two Japanese cities, an ecumenical group of pilgrims has come to Hiroshima to listen to those who survived and renew the struggle against their own countries’ continued reliance on nuclear weapons.

“It is time to abandon all support for retaining nuclear weapons. It is time to refuse to accept that the mass destruction of other people can be a legitimate form of protection of ourselves,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at the Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

US President Barack Obama has named Dr Ulysses Burley III to a presidential advisory panel on HIV and AIDS.

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.

A court decision in the Dominican Republic annulling the citizenship of an estimated 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian ancestry has been strongly criticized by church leaders, including the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Invoking prayers for creation, eco-justice and peace with the earth, Time for Creation, a Christian global event, is observed worldwide by many member churches of the WCC. This year, the Council has invited a focus on the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace” – a call issued by the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

Eighteen-year-old Asha Smith has a vision for changing laws that lead to injustice. In some ways, she is just beginning her life pilgrimage. While studying law at American University in Washington, DC, she serves as a youth intern for the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis (USA), her home community.

When Dr Ulysses Burley III visited Palestine and Israel six months ago, he came away with an even stronger determination to work for social justice, wherever and however he can.