The World Council of Churches (WCC) Jerusalem Liaison Office Advisory Group convened on 20 February under the leadership of WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay.
On the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay lamented the destruction of so many lives and called for an immediate end to the conflict.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog formally received World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay on 20 February, to discuss the current situation in Israel and Palestine, and the war in Gaza.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay and delegation met with Sheikh Azzam Khatib, director of Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem on 18 February, reiterating the WCC’s commitment to maintaining Jerusalem as a city of all three Abrahamic religions.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank, on 19 February, urging an end to the “seemingly endless cycle of violence and suffering.”
Member churches, religious leaders and local Christian groups in Palestine and Israel—as well as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli president Isaac Herzog—will meet with World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay as he visits the area beginning 16 February.
Speaking through reflections and a sermon during an international peace gathering in Berlin, World Council of Churches moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm reflected on how people of faith can work to overcome suffering in a wounded world.
Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, spoke on a nuclear weapons-free world during “The Audacity of Peace” gathering in Berlin.
With a focus on peacebuilding and human rights protection, The United Evangelical Mission’s International Summer School 2023, organized in cooperation with the World Council of Churches and other partners, took place in August and September in Hofgeismar, Germany.
During the 75th commemoration of what Palestinians refer to as the nakba, or “catastrophe”—when hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted during Israel's creation in 1948—World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with member churches in the Holy Land.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed concern and sadness upon hearing about alleged actions taken against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Can ecumenical peacebuilding guide the way towards shared interests in the Russia-Ukraine war, which exemplifies the clash of fundamentally different value systems, ethical frameworks, and historical narratives? Peter Prove, director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs reflects on the issue in the inaugural edition of Geneva Policy Outlook, a new online publication.
A group of Ecumenical Accompaniers completed their service in Palestine and Israel, handing their ministry over to the next wave, and celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at the same time.
In 1919, three Armenian families—the Balian, Karakeshian, and Ohanessian families—were brought to Jerusalem by Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs, then military governor of Jerusalem, to renovate the 16th century tiles at the Dome of the Rock in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On 24 November, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas formally received the acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca for a meeting to discuss just peace in Palestine and Israel.
Recognizing the deep need for, “renewed dialogue within the ecumenical movement,” the WCC 11th Assembly released a statement “strongly affirming the commitment of the WCC and its member churches to peace making through inter-religious dialogue and cooperation at all levels,” and calling for a global ceasefire in all armed conflicts around the world.
Since the election in mid-June of Rev. Dr Prof. Jerry Pillay as new World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, concerns have been raised, predominantly in Jewish media, about his position on Israel and the Jewish communities and their faith.