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The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted Bishop Dr Jukka Keskitalo and Rev. Pekka Mustakallio from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to discuss the ecumenical agenda of 2023 and the harvesting of the WCC 11 th assembly, as well a group from the Centre for Ecumenism of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, and 21 ordinands from the Church of Sweden.

An international meeting in Rome, “The Cry for Peace,” organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio and held 23-25 October, drew religions and cultures in dialogue to send a message of hope and trust in the future.

At the G20 Interfaith Forum, which took place 12-14 September in Bologna, Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, spoke on religious commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those focusing on children, hunger, water and sanitation.

As Muslim Friday prayers took place in Hagia Sophia on 24 July for the first time since the 1930s, the World Council of Churches (WCC) joined member churches and international organizations, including a number of prominent Muslim leaders, in urging a reconsideration of the decision to turn the museum into a mosque.

In a 24 July statement on Hagia Sophia, Religions for Peace reiterated its commitment to the universality of heritage as something that can create peace and respect for all faiths. “We call for calm, in times when we see the use of religious sentiments and institutions in a manner that is divisive, thus pitting some believers against one another,” reads the statement. “We stand on the side of peace, and of deliberate, intentional, coexistence, particularly as we hear of the voices, and see the actions, of divisiveness and hatred from many quarters.”

The Romani people, also known as the Roma, migrated from northwest India 1,500 years ago. Once they arrived in Europe, they spread across the continent from the Balkan region. Now Romani live worldwide, though principally in Europe.

Each year students from all over the world arrive at Bossey near Geneva for a three-month language training course to pave their way for ecumenical studies that follow on straight after. “The title captures the goal of the course,” says Father Lawrence Iwuamadi, the Nigerian priest who studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is academic dean of the Ecumenical Institute.

At a time of increased divisions within churches and within rapidly changing societies, Christians are called, more urgently than ever before, to model the values of reconciliation, justice and peace. That’s why a group of theologians and church leaders from different denominations have been meeting near the German city of Augsburg to work together on two documents calling for much closer collaboration in the tasks of peace-building and the care of migrants and refugees.

A conference organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland under the theme “Just Peace with Earth” was offered in conjunction with the Arctic Assembly, the largest annual international gathering focused on the future of the Arctic held Oct. 13-15.

Katariina Väisänen from Finland is used to ecumenical experiences, but was pleased at a course on peacebuilding in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Geneva on how much she could share with her fellow participants due to their common humanity.

Protecting human freedom and dignity is a vital contribution to peace-building by religious communities, said Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I as he spoke at the Al-Azhar International Peace Conference on 27-28 April in Egypt.

He earned the title “Green Patriarch” as a religious leader addressing alarming environmental issues over at least two decades. In 2008, Time Magazine named His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, for “defining environmentalism as spiritual responsibility”.

A 50-year-old religious text can shape interreligious relationships crucial for peace-building today, found participants in a workshop organized by the WCC and attended by guests from the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) on 28 October.

Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist religious leaders met this week in Assisi to discuss peace, while across the ocean in New York City global political leaders assembled at the United Nations also focussed on a troubled world.

Facilitating peace requires conviction, political independence and endurance. Add a whole lot of passion and native Cypriot Salpy Eskidjian fits perfectly into that job description. Since she started in 2011 as executive coordinator of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process, which is operating under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden in Nicosia, she has tirelessly – and successfully – sought to engage religious leaders in a dialogue for peace.

From Paris to Pakistan, Orlando to Myanmar, Iraq to Nigeria, each day witnesses conflict and violence perpetrated in the name of religion or committed against persons because of their religious identity.

A celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, called the “European Reformation Roadmap,” will begin in November 2016 in Geneva, then tour across sites of significance through May 2017.

Reflecting on the relevance of religion in today’s world, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit spoke at a sustainable development seminar in Rome on 4 May, posing a question to the participants: “Is religion able to bring hope to people of today?”

To promote open discussions on the theological and practical discourse, narrative and experiences on implications for the work of the multi-religious organizations on religion, violence and extremism, the WCC, along with the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church and the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists held a Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs.

Following the WCC/UN High Level Conference on the Refugee Crisis in Europe, which took place at the Ecumenical Centre Geneva on 18-19 January, a statement has been issued entitled "Europe’s Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action”.