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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.

How sustainable is a stability based on fear? As advocates posed the question this week, they acknowledged unprecedented support for a nuclear weapons ban, support that has been grow-ing among religious leaders, state officials and a world growing weary of living in fear.

A ground-breaking pontifical critique of nuclear weapons affirms the new treaty to ban nuclear weapons. “The threat of use [of nuclear weapons], as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned,” Pope Francis told 400 clergy, diplomats, campaigners and Nobel laureates gathered in the Vatican on 10-11 November.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said Friday it will work tirelessly in coming years to ensure the full implementation of the nuclear ban treaty it assembled.

The WCC congratulated its partner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on 6 October.

On 20 September at the United Nations in New York, a treaty to ban nuclear weapons was formally opened for signature. At the time of writing, some 49 states have signed.

Dr. Emily Welty is an assistant professor in Peace and Justice Studies at Pace University in New York City (USA). She also serves as vice moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. As an advocate for banning nuclear weapons, Dr Welty is known both for her unwavering belief in a world free from nuclear weapons, and for her strategic thinking toward that goal.

In a 15 September letter to Swedish foreign affairs minister Margot Wallström, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed strong support for religious leaders in Sweden who have requested that Sweden take part in the next step towards entry-into-force for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which opens for signature on 20 September at the United Nations.

In a 25 August speech at the Wittenberg Ecumenical Assembly, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reviewed the work of the ecumenical movement in 2017, describing the present as “an extraordinary ecumenical chance at this point in history.”

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is the latest participating organization to announce it will join, on 13 August, a “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula.”

Churches across the world are invited to show solidarity with Korean churches by joining the prayer, based on Romans 14:19: “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”

In an emergency letter to South Korean president Moon Jae-In, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) urged immediate dialogue to ease military tension in the Korean Peninsula.