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The WCC continues to receive messages of thanksgiving and encouragement from member churches, sister organizations and the wider ecumenical movement as the fellowship marks 70 years in working for Christian unity and action.

For Dame Mary Tanner it was the challenge of the Community Study that dramatically enlarged her understanding of the unity which is God’s gift and our calling. The years of reflection on experience and envisioning the church as a community of women and men offered a chance to change.

Publication of the text The Church: Towards a Common Vision has been called an ecumenical highlight of 2013. Now under study by churches throughout the world, it is a document in search of convergence. The most recent issue of the quarterly journal The Ecumenical Review features commentary on this product of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order.

Today the WCC 10th Assembly hosted a unity plenary. The plenary invited participants to reflect on unity and the spiritual journey of fellowship grounded in prayerful reflection.

At the close of the 14th Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in Budapest, Dame Mary Tanner hailed the emergence of a new constitution for the organization of 120 Anglican, Old Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches. She expressed the hope that this pattern of governance may provide “structures of grace” for churches and the world.

A draft statement on Christian unity, intended for the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2013, was presented on 30 August to the WCC's 60th Central Committee meeting.

On the morning of 28 February, his second day visiting the offices of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Archbishop Rowan Williams of the Church of England addressed a roundtable discussion on the unity of the Christian church.

A call for solidarity with the poor was delivered to a gathering of religious, political and civil society leaders from all over the world by one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The meeting on the topic “Bound to Live Together: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” is taking place from 11-13 September in Munich, Germany.

Power from the Holy Spirit, drawing on “the uncreated energy of God” and revealing the Word of God in Jesus Christ, is the divine blessing for which Christians give thanks on the Sunday of Pentecost.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) takes new steps to promote Christian unity and inter-religious harmony, will the challenges of organizational governance and re-structuring drain “the life out of the ecumenical movement”?

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, made his first formal visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams on Friday 14 January 2011. Tveit led a delegation from the WCC to a meeting with the archbishop and other senior leaders of the Church of England at Church House, Westminster, London, the administrative headquarters of the Church of England.

On Friday 14 January the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, will travel to London for a consultation with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and other leaders of the Church of England. Tveit will be accompanied by two members of his staff and WCC president Dame Mary Tanner .

Thirty women gathered in Bethlehem on 13-18 December to celebrate the first anniversary of the “Kairos Palestine” document on the quest for peace and human rights in Palestine and Israel. The gathering also reflected theologically on the content of the text. Participants came from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Latin America and Australia.

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

by Theodore Gill (*)

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I will open the meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order, which will take place in Kolympari, Crete, Greece, from 7 to 14 October 2009.

At the recent Central Committee meeting, three female presidents of the World Council of Churches expressed concern and disappointment over the lack of women in senior staff leadership. As of 1 October, all leadership positions at the WCC in programmes and at the senior level will be men. The WCC presidents Dr Mary Tanner , Rev. Dr Ofelia Ortega and Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson  suggested the following recommendation to be added to the nominations committee report which was discussed and then approved by the Central Committee:Â

How does the church interact with a rapidly changing society? On 31 August, members of the World Council of Churches Central Committee spent much of the morning discussing this question in a pair of plenary sessions in Geneva.

“Brothers and sisters, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37b)

Can saints and martyrs - or for that matter, Christians who lived exemplary lives - help unite the churches into which they were born? An international group of experts will discuss this and other related questions at a symposium in an Italian monastery.