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Preceding the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, the World Council of Churches is hosting, on 29 November, a webinar entitled “The New UN Forum on People of African descent: realising the promises of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action?”

A newly released volume, “Transformative Spiritualities for the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” provides a selection of reflections from indigenous perspectives to women’s voices, from black communities ́ to campesino/as ́ struggles, from specific Christian traditions to sister faiths.

In a statement issued just after the verdict finding former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd, Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reflected that no verdict can erase the pain of the Floyd family.

In a webinar entitled “Christians Studying Other Religions: Surveying the Field, Encouraging the Vocation,” held 8-9 December, more than 20 scholars from across the globe met to discuss theological education, dialogue, witness, and interreligious cooperation for justice and peace.

The fatal blast in Beirut last month became yet another blow to an already plagued country. In recent months, a financial crisis with a free-falling currency and rising unemployment has further undermined the Lebanese economy. Add to that one million Syrian refugees and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the contours of a fragile nation facing monumental challenges emerge.

The legacy of sexual slavery before, during and after the brutal Korean War weighs heavily on the shoulders of the thousands of Korean women who lived for decades under a brutal militarized patriarchy.

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.

Rev. Dr Martin Robra has been a key contributor to the ecumenical movement for the last 25 years, working for the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Robra is a theologian and ordained pastor who served as programme executive for the WCC for Ecumenical Continuing Formation, Roman Catholic relations, the joint inter-faith project with the International Labour Organisation Advancing Peace through social justice and support for the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

WCC Communication asked Robra to reflect on his years of service to the WCC fellowship.

As the council of the Lutheran World Federation met on 12 June, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit shared greetings and appreciation.

In the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership, based in Chicago, lifted up points of hope that peace will win in the end. In a 25 April message, Shanta Premawardhana, president of the institute, wrote that every person of every faith of every nation deserves to wake up in peace. “Every child deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and alive to the promise that each day brings,” Premawardhana wrote. “I'm sure you know that this is why we build Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in Sri Lanka.”

In the small village of Kaliki, men, women and children are on their feet, dancing, accompanied by drum rolls, as an international World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrim Team arrives. The pilgrims are given intricately-woven crowns of grass and flowers and their faces are painted with traditional patterns.