Christians in Africa have joined in ecumenical celebrations and prayer services to mark the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed worldwide from 18-25 January.
Commemorating the International Day of Peace on 21 September, the Ecumenical Network of South Sudan sent a message to the Uganda Joint Christian Council and to other organizations and communities who have hosted refugees.
“We would like to express our solidarity, knowing quite well your ever-commendable efforts towards your support for the people of South Sudan,” reads the statement. “You have been true ambassadors of the love of Christ.”
Under the theme ‘Moving in the Spirit called Transforming Discipleship’, the World Council of Churches is hosting a major conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Arusha, Tanzania, 8-13 March.
Forty representatives of national councils of persons with disabilities from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda met in Kigali, Rwanda from 8-11 August to explore ways in which they can promote disability-inclusive development in East Africa.
Interview with Fr James Oyet-Latansio (JOL), general secretary of the Christian Council in South Sudan and Mr Ferdinand von Habsburg-Lothringen (FHL), advisor on reconciliation, South Sudan Council of Churches
Hope in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace formed the integral thread for proceedings at the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Trondheim, Norway this week. The 2016 meeting took place 22-28 June, the second gathering since the Central Committee was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.
The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan’s diocese of Wau has developed a course titled “Reconcile - Moving Forward in Peace”, inviting people to be peace-builders this Lenten season.
The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.
Church leaders, who were part of the negotiations between South Sudan's president Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar, now urge that the peace agreement come into immediate effect, ending a five-month conflict in the world’s newest country.
In his Easter reflections, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit called this year an “opportunity for shared testimony to the Resurrection” since churches from both eastern and western traditions of Christianity will celebrate Easter on the same day, Sunday 20 April.