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Two World Council of Churches (WCC) journals – The Ecumenical Review and International Review of Mission – have used recent issues to reflect on the WCC’s 11th Assembly, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022, around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

“Come and See,” a theological invitation to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace was published in May 2019 and, for the close-knit group who labored to develop it, the journey was life-changing.

Young students from all over the world were welcomed to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland on Tuesday for the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interreligious Studies.
The theme of the 2018/2019 academic year is “Engaging for just and participatory societies - belongingness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”.

The Shia Muslim student from Canada, the Presbyterian Christian student from India and some of their companions reluctantly set off for an early run on a chilly morning to the Geneva lakeside little knowing what sunrise would bring.

Under the headline “Free to change” hundreds of Swedes gathered in the sacred cathedral in Gothenburg on 2 February to learn more about international advocacy from a faith and human rights perspective.

A full-day programme arranged by the dioceses of Skara and Gothenburg in cooperation with Church of Sweden’s youth organisation, covered a wide spectrum of pertinent issues facing the ecumenical movement.

The annual meeting with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) and the World Council of Churches was held in Rome from 10-11 January. Staff of both the PCID and the Office of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation of the World Council of Churches participated.

As students gathered at the WCC Ecumenical Institute at Bossey for an interreligious summer school, they reflected on what brought them to the institute, and what knowledge and insights they will take home.

Whether as individual believers or as a community, it is our collective task to advocate for Christian unity, says Melanio L. Aoanan from the Philippines. A clear vision for religious and ecumenical theological education is needed that is relevant in the 21st century.

It is time to revitalize the Asian ecumenical movement to respond to contemporary realities in Asia, according to Mathews George Chunakara, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, in the article that opens the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the WCC.

He earned the title “Green Patriarch” as a religious leader addressing alarming environmental issues over at least two decades. In 2008, Time Magazine named His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, for “defining environmentalism as spiritual responsibility”.

Bossey’s story is both old and new but it’s younger than ever, says one of its graduates, a renowned ecumenical scholar who opened a book launch on the history of the institute that has had students from so many parts of the world.

A brief yet lively history of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, The Story of Bossey: A Laboratory for Ecumenical Life, will be released by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Publications at a book launch 1 October on the grounds of the institute.

Rev. Dr Hielke Wolters is leaving the WCC after serving for nine years - the last seven years as associate general secretary - but he is not leaving the ecumenical movement to which he has been dedicated since his student days. Officially is he going to retire, but only on the paper. He has many thoughts and plans to realize as he moves back to the Netherlands to serve, in one way or another, the church or the wider ecumenical movement. Wolters said to WCC News with a smile: “I’m open for any suggestion and I know that God will lead me in the right direction when that time comes.”

The refugee situation is something that we must treat with the utmost seriousness. People are fleeing without food, water and somewhere to live. These are people who have fled for their lives. It is a fact that we must treat with the utmost seriousness, says Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC.

Meeting from 17 to 24 June, the newly reconstituted Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC has begun to define its principal trajectories for ecumenical study and common activity from 2015 until the next WCC Assembly in 2020.

Challenged by Christians from Brazil to strive for greater respect for religious and cultural diversity, churches are reflecting together on the gospel of John as they celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

On 24 March 2012, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism pre-assembly event invoked renewed thinking and commitment on evangelism, disassociated from the forces of oppression, and grounded in humility and respect for all.

Reflecting on the socio-political situation of Christians in Pakistan, the World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit finds God in difficult situations and explores the mission of the church in the country’s special context. He was speaking at a mission consultation organized by the Church of Pakistan on 9 October in Lahore.