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With well over a year past since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Easter celebrations in 2021 were bound to be unusual. Yet even amid such circumstances, the Ecumenical Institute chapel at Château de Bossey saw students and faculty gather to mark Orthodox Easter last Saturday evening.

During his long career, Weber, who passed away on 18 October, made the Bible come alive for thousands of people through Bible studies that he coordinated with groups from many different cultures, contexts and situations.

The marketplace - also referred to as a “sokoni" - became an opportunity for faith and community-based institutions to share what they do to improve the lives of people around them.

Father Mikhail Gundyaev grew up in St Petersburg at a time the city was known as Leningrad and when religion was still frowned upon in the then Soviet Union, so studying at Bossey in 1994 and 1995 opened new horizons for him. “It was a valuable and precious experience to meet people from different churches and from many different cultures,” said Gundyaev. “I saw people from Africa who had never seen someone from the Orthodox Church.”

The sound of a bell “calling across fields and cities, re-assembling the community that celebrates the new creation” opened the Sunday service prepared to commemorate 70 years of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, on 2 October. The celebration closed a three-day programme of activities around the historic institute’s anniversary.

Even before Rev. Dr Solomon Mepaiyeda heard about the Ecumenical Institute at Chateau de Bossey, he knew he wanted to study at a reputable ecumenical institution. “I wanted to contribute to collaborative efforts among Nigerian churches,” said Mepaiyeda, a member of the Anglican Church.

Sincere condolences were expressed at the death of Bishop Vinton R. Anderson by the WCC general secretary. The first African American to serve as the WCC president for North America, from 1991-98, Bishop Anderson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church passed away on Wednesday.

Why has Eastern Orthodoxy not developed a full-throated political theology? Responding to this question, author Dr Pantelis Kalaitzidis offered a spirited critique of Orthodox Christians' approaches to political life and political theology at a launch of his book on 4 July at the World Council of Churches (WCC) headquarters in Geneva.

The HIV pandemic has been on the world stage for three decades now.  For most of that time the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its member churches have been deeply involved in making churches and theological institutions HIV-competent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

The wholeness of creation and the commitment for justice are two biblical insights that have guided ecumenical concern on climate change, say the editors of the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, published under the title, "Churches Caring for Creation and Climate Justice".