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"Perspectives on Migration: Displacement and Marginalization, Inclusion and Justice. An Ecumenical Vision"

"Perspectives on Migration: Displacement and Marginalization, Inclusion and Justice.
An Ecumenical Vision" - Speech by Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches at the reception hosted by UNICEF, in New York, 22 January 2018, as part of as part of the 4th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs.

General Secretary

Let the children come to me

The children were brought to Jesus in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. They were brought with hearts filled with hope and confidence. “Do not stop them” Jesus said. Today, on World Children’s Day, let us think about the 28 million refugee children who are driven from their homes by conflict, migrating in the hope of finding a safer life.

Interfaith Statement to the Plenary of the High Level Ministerial Segment of COP23

Entitled “To Bonn and Beyond: Act Now with Justice and Peace”, the statement was read by Frances Namoumou, representing the WCC and the Pacific Conference of Churches, to the plenary of the High Level Ministerial Segment of the 23rd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23), in Bonn, Germany, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference took place under the presidency of Fiji.

Ecumenical movement

Impressions from Iraq

Returning from another visit to Iraq alongside Carla Khijoyan, the World Council of Churches' Middle East programme executive, and Fr Emanuel Youkhana of the Christian Aid Programme Northern Iraq (CAPNI), many images fill my mind: images of destruction, and of life hesitantly picking up again. Many uncertainties remain, prompting us to bend our heads and raise our prayers to the Lord.

The report by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit to the WCC executive committee, June 2017

In his report to the Executive Committee, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit noted that we are living in a time when the purpose and the objectives of the WCC are highly relevant.

Based on these realities, there is a need for a new search for unity, he said. “Through the many dimensions of its work, the WCC contributes to the unity of the church, and the unity that the WCC is able to express, in turn, contributes to the unity of humankind.”

General Secretary

The pain and the glory.

The days after the Ascension are a time of waiting and expectation, a time like the earliest disciples in Jerusalem in which to reflect on the meaning both of Jesus’ life and its significance for ourselves: indeed a season of both pain and glory. That is certainly the experience these days of our brothers and sisters in those lands where Christianity first began.

Ruth 1:1–22 "Pilgrimage as Solidarity", by Yolanda Pantou

The migration of Ruth to Bethlehem can be understood as a kind of pilgrimage because she chose to immigrate as a form of solidarity with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Her journey of migration changes Ruth’s beliefs, values, and path of life. The text speaks about two stories of immigration—the first one is caused by scarcity of basic provisions, and the second one is propelled by solidarity. We can see similarities between pilgrimage and immigration. There are shared elements of journey, importance, unpredictability, encounters, conversion, solidarity, openness, closeness, and divine providence. The story of Ruth and Naomi provides a biblical understanding of pilgrimage of justice and peace in relation to immigration.

WCC Programmes

Intercultural community garden “Rainbow Land”

In Landskron, where I am a pastor of the Lutheran Church in Austria, we have a dynamic, growing and socially engaged congregation. Our town hosts hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers from various countries. While their papers are being processed, they are not allowed to work. In our interactions with the refugees and asylum seekers, they have expressed their frustration at not being able to use their time fruitfully. Most of them miss working, and the contact with the land.

Religious groups working for peace and love

Teenagers pose lots of challenges for any parent. Emotional, rebellious, and subject to inevitable pressures, it is undoubtedly difficult to raise children who are transitioning from becoming children to adults. I am in this situation—I have three. As I reflect on their growing into individualized people, I can only hope that, once they embark on their respective paths, they live in a society that is peaceful and accepting.