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The Arusha Call to Discipleship is at once exhilarating, transformative and challenging to the point of discomfort for some, reflected leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) during a 20 May press conference and book launch in Helsinki, Finland.

World Council of Churches partners in Arusha, Tanzania reflected on the realities in the communities they serve as they met one year after the World Council of Churches’ Conference on World Mission and Evangelism.

The Launch of the Arusha Report Package will take place in Helsinki, on 20th May 2019 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm EEST.

The Anglican Church of Burundi and Friends Church in Burundi in partnership with World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission have embarked on a three-year journey of mainstreaming disability in their development programmes. This journey, aiming to improve the livelihoods of persons with disabilities in Burundi, began with the launch of a project entitled “Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Church Development Programmes in Burundi” held on 27 February in Bujumbura.

The latest issue of the International Review of Mission, the biannual journal of the WCC contains a selection of articles which were on the one hand given as key lectures at the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Arusha from 8-13 March 2018 and on the other hand articles from Missiologists from all over the world, including Catholic, Pentecostal, Protestant and Orthodox voices, asking about “Mission quo vadis after Arusha?”.

A delegation from the Evangelical Church in Germany is visiting the WCC on 26-27 October for an ecumenical learning experience that includes prayers with students from the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, an introduction and overview of the work of the WCC, a meeting with the Lutheran World Federation, and a guided tour of the Ecumenical Centre.

Maryland-based, Ghanaian-born Rev. Dr Casely Essamuah was in February selected as secretary of the Global Christian Forum. Originally ordained in the Methodist Church in Ghana, he began his work officially in July. This week he made a study visit to the WCC and the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva and the WCC was able to converse with him.

World Council of Churches leaders spoke on the theme “Hospitality: On a Pilgrim’s Way of Justice and Peace" at a symposium on 23 August at the Protestant Theological University Amsterdam.

The Global Day of Prayer to End Famine has found relevance in Africa, where communities bear the brunt of severe food shortages associated with the challenge. On 10 June, the WCC, All Africa Conference of Churches and World Evangelical Alliance called on churches to pray for millions of people at risk and those who face severe hunger.

At the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, held in Tanzania in March, WCC communications interviewed Rene van Dongen, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Deputy Representative. Van Dongen spoke about Churches’ Commitments to Children, which is now supported by more than 200 churches and partners worldwide. The initiative was created when the WCC and UNICEF facilitated a broad consultative process around the question ‘How can churches use their influence to improve children’s lives?’

A seminar following the WCC Conference on World Mission and Evangelism is being convened on 20 April in Helsinki, Finland. Participants and speakers include, among others, Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon, professor of Ecumenical Missiology at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, as well as delegates to the Arusha conference representing Lutheran and Orthodox churches.

The primate of The Church of the Lord, Aladura, Worldwide, an African initiated church founded in 1925 talks with pride about how the founder had a calling from God to have women serving with men in pastoral work. Primate Rev. Dr Rufus Okikiolaolu Ositelu, metropolitan archbishop of the church visited Geneva and the WCC on 29-30 January.

Environmentally-conscious presiding bishop Dr Fredrick Shoo of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania says it was a special honour to host the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in his country that is often called the “cradle of humanity”. “It has been a moment of reflection for the church as one body of disciples of Christ and on how we witness about Christ in the global context,” said Shoo, known for his tree-planting activities, in an interview.

When Kenneth Ben grew up in the sixties and seventies each day started and ended with a prayer. His father, who was a pastor, had a pulpit in the home and his parents built a lifestyle around Christian values. Ben also learned early on the value of an extended family, where grandparents and relatives are included.

The Conference on World Mission and Evangelism officially closed with a “sending service” during which participants reflected on their call to discipleship and the significance of such a call in transforming mission in a world of pain, dislocation and turmoil.

“We can embrace the cross when we hold that there is no spirituality without life and spirituality is impatient life against the disorder of humanity,” said Rev. Dr Vuyani Vellem, one of the speakers at a plenary on the theology of the cross at the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).

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.

Daily Bible studies at the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism has been gathering participants from mainline Protestant, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and African-instituted churches. The Bible studies prepared for the for the conference are available at the WCC website.

Thirty participants gathered on 9-10 March in a ‘warsha’ - or workshop - entitled “Building Capacity for Migration & Multicultural Ministries: From Chaos to Hope” in Arusha, Tanzania.
“Warsha,” a Kiswahili term, defines an arena for discussing new ideas that advance creative thinking, in this case on how the the church today can inform and inspire mission and ministry with the migrants.

Under the theme ‘Moving in the Spirit called Transforming Discipleship’, the World Council of Churches is hosting a major conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Arusha, Tanzania, 8-13 March.