Leaders from Nordic churches—including the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark—met with World Council of Churches (WCC) leadership and staff on 28 April, discussing preparations for the WCC 11th Assembly as well as directions for the next decade.
O Lord, open our lips, and our mouth shall proclaim your praise...
This week in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we pray with the people and churches of Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Prayers were prepared in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation.
Although she loves what she is doing, there are times when bishop Sofie Petersen feels a strong desire to be someplace else than inside her cosy diocesan office in Nuuk, Greenland. Preferably outdoors, inhaling crisp, arctic air in a stunningly beautiful landscape where mighty polar bears roam and huge whales gently plough their way through the ice-scattered waters along the coastline.
In a letter to the Bishop of Copenhagen, Peter Skov Jakobsen, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed his deep concern on the acts of terror that have hit the Nordic countries again. “You and your people are in my and our prayers these days. Your church has a strong voice for justice and for peace, for living together in the mystery and gift of creation as human beings,” he writes.
These pilgrims are laughing a lot. After intensely debating everything from church unity to the very meaning of the word “pilgrimage” last week, some members of the WCC Central Committee embarked on a three-hour hike on Sunday afternoon that revealed the not-so-serious side of the WCC governing body.
From September 1st to 4 October, Christians around the world are praying and caring for creation. It’s the “Season of Creation”. The beginning and the end date of Season of Creation are linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity, respectively.
