In einer am 12. Dezember veröffentlichten Erklärung an das Globale Flüchtlingsforum betonten religiöse Führungspersönlichkeiten ihre Verpflichtung, Flüchtlingen Zuflucht zu gewähren und ihre Menschenrechte zu verteidigen.
A webinar on 25 May, “Exploring the nexus between racism, xenophobia and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and African Union (AU) free movement protocol,” marked Africa Day by focusing on the potential of faith communities, especially Christians, in bridging the gaps that continue to frustrate the free movement of people and goods around the continent.
Pastor Joachim Leberecht, from Herzogenrath/Germany, has won the international Menno Simons Sermon Award from the Center for Peace Church Theology (University of Hamburg) together with the Mennonite congregation Hamburg-Altona.
Media coverage of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly—held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022—indicated a global interest in how ecumenism can and will address the pressing concerns of the world, including climate change, the war in Ukraine, and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Ekaterina E. wears the human face of statelessness every day.“Statelessness is about expulsion from the human community” she says, “for me personally, being stateless means I have been separated from my mother for nearly 30 years now.”
On 20 June, World Refugee Day, a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar will focus on statelessness and the recently addopted “Interfaith Affirmations on Belongingness.”
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and Religions for Peace will issue on 9 May a joint message on statelessness, “Belonging—Affirmations for Faith Leaders”.
The document is one of the most recent fruits of WCC work that has been ongoing for more than a decade around the issue of statelessness. It is currently available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
On the UN International Day of Conscience, 5 April, the World Council of Churches (WCC) releases a new volume of “I Belong – Biblical Reflections on Statelessness”. The day highlights the need for the creation of conditions of stability, peaceful coexistence, respect for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, language or religion.
A new publication from WCC, “Coexistence: Peace, Nature, Poverty, Terrorism, Values (Religious Perspectives)” by Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania, is now available in hard copy and as an eBook.
A webinar on 1 March—Zero Discrimination Day—will explore the theme “COVID-19, Casteism and Caste discrimination: How to mitigate pandemic-reinforced inequality and discrimination.”
At a side event during COP26, indigenous voices rang on the theme “Making Peace with Nature: Heeding the Call of Indigenous Peoples.” Held on 3 November, the virtual event drew enthusiastic supporters who waited outside the door of the meeting room in a show of solidarity.
Archbishop Rev. Dr Soritua Albert Ernest Nababan, a global ecumenical leader, passed away on 8 May in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the age of 88. He was the World Council of Churches (WCC) president from 2006-2013 and served as the former Ephorus (Archbishop) of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, the largest Protestant church in Indonesia and the largest Lutheran church in Asia with a membership of 4 million people.
This week, with the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we pray for the churches and people of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
Prayers were prepared in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation.
Die Kommission für Glauben und Kirchenverfassung des Ökumenischen Rates der Kirchen (ÖRK) veröffentlichte am 18. Januar zwei neue (englischsprachige) Dokumente: „Love and Witness: Proclaiming the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ in a Religiously Plural World“, (zu Deutsch etwa „Liebe und Zeugnis: den Frieden des Herrn Jesus Christus in einer multireligiösen Welt verkündigen“) und „Cultivate and Care: An Ecumenical Theology of Justice for and within Creation“ (zu Deutsch etwa: „Pflegen und schützen: eine ökumenische Theologie der Gerechtigkeit für die und innerhalb der Schöpfung“).
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission released two new papers on 18 January: “Love and Witness: Proclaiming the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ in a Religiously Plural World,” and “Cultivate and Care: An Ecumenical Theology of Justice for and within Creation.”
Current tensions within and between churches are often the result of disagreements over moral issues. Churches thus face challenges to preserve unity and meet obstacles to restore unity. Seeing the urgency of the matter, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Faith and Order Commission took up the task to assist the churches in finding a way to deepen mutual understanding leading to dialogue. Its study group on moral discernment presents two publications.
An ongoing webinar series convened this week by the World Council of Churches (WCC) continues to offer theological reflections on “Hate Speech and Whiteness.”
Rev. Inácio Lemke is president of the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC). He is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil. This interview is part of a series dedicated to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Was 1920 to the ecumenical movement what the ancient used to call annus mirabilis, an amazing year? If you are confined like me you may take time to think about it. We start our ecumenical tour of 1920 one year earlier.
After more than ten years heading the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit says this is the time that "we should remind one another that we believe in God as the “Good shepherd” who promised to be with us also in times of crisis,” especially in this time of the global COVID-19 crisis.