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Ecumenical International Youth Day 2023 Toolkit

Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones
Andrei Ursulean
Stefan Wilson

This year’s theme for Ecumenical Youth Day is Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones. Political insurrection and ideologies have permeated the fabric of society. This has caused division and hatred, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.

Addressing the realities young people face in the world today represents a moral imperative for and crucial aspect of peace-building. Providing them with access to education and psychological support is the only solution for their empowerment. Through this toolkit, the World Council of Churches, via youth engagement in the ecumenical movement, extends an invitation and encourages all member churches and ecumenical partners to participate in this year’s Ecumenical International Youth Day. This year, there is a special desire to draw attention to the situation of young people who live the hard realities of wars, conflicts, and injustice. This document contains resources and suggested ways to observe this day and adapt it to your context.

Let the Waves Roar

Perspectives of Young Prophetic Voices in the Ecumenical Movement

Consultations with young people, participants in WCC events between the 10th and the 11th assemblies, and a number of church leaders have concluded that there is a need to provide an updated resource to get to know young people of today and to explore ways for the church to effectively engage the 18–30-year-old age group in the ecumenical movement.

The 17 young people whose voices are heard in these pages represent eight regions and diverse church traditions. Another three chapters have been contributed by the editors and former WCC youth department staff. The book invites all generations to discern the signs of our times and to be proactive in our response to them.

Morning Prayer for Tuesday, 6 April 2021

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.

As goodwill ambassador, Rev. Martina Viktorie Kopecka breathes fresh spirit into reconciliation in Czech Republic

Rev. Martina Viktorie Kopecka, a priest in the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, is moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ECHOS Commission for young people. She also serves on the WCC executive and central committees. In February, she was named a goodwill ambassador by H. E. Tomáš Petříček, minister of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic, a role she will serve for one year. Below, she reflects on her hopes and plans for sharing stories from the Czech Republic with the world, bridging divides in her home country, and, ultimately, bringing about new expressions of Christian love.

Morning Prayer for Monday, 1 February 2021

God of compassion and solidarity, we come together as people with open hearts...

This week in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we are praying with the people and churches of  Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Western Sahara, Tunisia.

This order of service for the World Interfaith Harmony Week makes use of material from the document Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond, jointly produced by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Prayers were prepared in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation.

Ecumenical movement

Morning Prayer for Monday, 18 January 2021

Come and direct our hearts toward you...

With the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle we pray for the churches and people of the Arabian Peninsula:

Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

AND

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2021.

Theme: Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit

(John 15: 5 – 9)

WCC Programmes

A visionary missionary heads home

After more than 30 years as a pastor, ecumenist and church leader, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit firmly believes that the church can change the world. As general secretary of the WCC for the past ten years, he has witnessed what Jesus Christ means to people of faith around the globe. By the end of this month he heads home to lead the Church of Norway as presiding bishop of its bishop’s conference.

In Korea, young ‘stewards of hope’ forge ahead together

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.

A passionate Korean feminist and ecumenist

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.

“What’s love got to do with it?” Tveit delivers Huffington lecture

As he delivered the Inaugural Michael Huffington Lecture at Loyola Marymount University on 1 April, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit spoke on “Christ's love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” the theme of the WCC 11th Assembly in 2021 in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity

18 - 29 September 2019

Applications are now open for YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity), an interreligious training programme launched by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2014 following its 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea.

Republic of Korea

Paving the way for ecumenical studies, learning English in Bossey

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.

Unifying faiths in peace and harmony through dialogue

In a plenary discussion titled ”Light and Truth in Pluralistic Asia” held at the Asia Ecumenical Youth Assembly (AEYA) in Manado, Indonesia last Monday, religious leaders from different faiths shared perspectives. They agreed that continuous interfaith dialogue is key to better mutual understanding, tolerance and respect.

Flowers of the church and agents of change gather in Indonesia

Under the theme ”Lord, send Your Light and Truth to lead us”, the Asian Ecumenical Youth Assembly (AEYA) opened in Manado, Indonesia on Saturday. For six days, around 350 youth from all over Asia will reflect on the challenges facing them in today’s globalized society and how religion and ecumenism can play a vital role for peace and stability.