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Sharing hopes and challenges for the search for peace on the Korean peninsula, members of the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification & Development on the Korean Peninsula (EFK) gathered for an informal meeting this week.

As the Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity opened at the Yonsei University Chapel in South Korea on 18 September, participants were already learning to live into the theme “Stewards of Hope, Seekers of Harmony.” For the first time, the training includes not only young people from Asia but from across the world, and is being co-coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Programme for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, the Council for World Mission, and youth representatives from the ecumenical movement.

At the most glorious moment in her career, Rev. Prof. Dr Sang Chang discovered that society is not always friendly and that politics can be devilish. But thanks to God, she got over it. Without bitterness and even more determined in her fight for gender equality and social justice.

Rev. Dr Peniel Rajkumar is programme executive for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation with the World Council of Churches (WCC). He helped to organize the first formal WCC dialogue between Christians and Confucians in WCC history.

For the first time in its history, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has initiated a formal dialogue with Confucians. Organised in collaboration with the Council for World Mission and the Korea Forum for Science and Life and with the support of the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Sungkyunkwan University, the City of Andong and the Korea Foundation for Culture and Ethics, the dialogue commenced on 27 October with an interreligious consultation on Christian-Confucian relations in Seoul

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), on 11-12 July, held an international consultation on “Towards Revitalising the Ecumenical Movement in Asia.” The gathering of 60 church and ecumenical leaders was organised by the CCA at its headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand as a prelude to its Diamond Jubilee celebration.

“The first thing that is required of us is to live the courage of our convictions. For the World Council of Churches, our conviction is that the world must be freed of nuclear weapons,” said the Rev. Dr Sang Chang, WCC president for Asia, in her address at the Nuclear Disarmament Symposium held in Hiroshima.

Kirchenleitende aus sieben Ländern, die derzeit historische Entscheidungen für oder gegen die Ächtung von Atomwaffen treffen, werden Anfang August zu einer Pilgereise in zwei japanische Städte aufbrechen, die vor 70 Jahren durch Atombomben dezimiert wurden.

More than 400 representatives of member churches and partner bodies from 28 countries in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, headed home on 27 May from an exciting week in Jakarta, Indonesia after attending the Christian Conference of Asia's (CCA) 14th General Assembly.

Inspired by the theme “a pilgrimage of justice and peace” – a call issued by the WCC 10th Assembly in 2013 – a conference in Germany affirmed the commitment of working together with churches in South Korea and Japan towards a “common journey of spiritual renewal and prophetic calling” for a “just peace” in the region.

Politicization of religion, rights of religious minorities and stateless people, peace and reunification of the Korean Peninsula and just peace served as subjects of the public statements adopted at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea.

The WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, concluded on 8 November, acting to inspire churches to renew their commitments to justice and peace. Through varied encounters and dialogue within the fellowship of churches, the Assembly has made concrete decisions and recommendations setting priorities for the future work of the WCC.

Mit einem seiner ersten Beschlüsse hat der neu eingesetzte 150 Personen umfassende Zentralausschuss des Ökumenischen Rates der Kirchen Geschichte geschrieben, als er die aus Nairobi stammende Dr. Agnes Abuom von der Anglikanischen Kirche von Kenia zur Vorsitzenden des höchsten Leitungsgremiums des ÖRK wählte.

In one of their first decisions as the Central Committee for the World Council of Churches, the 150-member committee made history Friday by electing Dr Agnes Abuom of Nariobi, Kenya as the moderator of the highest WCC governing body.

A symbolic act of pouring water into one common vessel, carried out by religious leaders representing Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist faiths, marked the significance of water in various religious traditions. This action took place at the WCC 10th Assembly, currently underway in Busan, Republic of Korea.

At the WCC 10th Assembly, the Asia region shared current realities through churches’ voices, cultural symbols and artistic performances. A continent of diversity and religious plurality, Asia is filled with contradictions of wealth and poverty, and a strong resilience. As its churches seek paths toward “justice and peace” in their societies, Asia offers an impressive range of experience.

Amidst dramatic events, injustices and crises in the world, God is creating a “new dawn” for the ecumenical movement, said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC. He was reporting at the 10th Assembly of the WCC on the council’s work over the last seven years. He welcomed the coming of this Assembly which he expects to be an event of humility, honesty and hope.