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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.

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.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group and Theological Study Group, which convened in mid-June, brought reflections, prayers and insights that will form a path toward the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022.

Jim Winkler, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches (USA) and Pastor Peter Noteboom, general secretary of The Canadian Council of Churches, shared reflections on their recent gathering. 

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.

World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca participated in a virtual “High-Level Dialogue on Multi-religious Response to COVID-19 Vaccine” on 19 March with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as leaders from other religious groups.

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.

The brutal killing of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, at the hands of two white security guards outside a supermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 19 November, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, has sparked outrage across the country. World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches raised their voices to condemn the killing and to express deep concern regarding systemic racial injustice in Brazil.