Search results

Our series of interviews with Thursdays in Black ambassadors highlights those who are playing a vital role in increasing the impact of our collective call for a world without rape and violence. Jessica Roland, is senior specialist for Inclusive Peace for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.

An online webinar held 2 December brought a moving circle of hope to life even as women and men shared their tragic experiences of femicide and domestic violence in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Two upcoming online events, entitled “Missing and Murdered: Addressing Femicide and Sexual and Gender-based Violence in our Global Context,” will address the shadow pandemic of violence against women. 

During a series of meetings called “Staff Planning Days”, 5-8 October, the staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is gathering online to continue planning for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022 and to look beyond the assembly at the future Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, shared a message with the Conference of the World Council of Religious Leaders on Faith and Diplomacy: Generations in Dialogue, being held 4-7 October in Lindau, Germany.

Religious and traditional leaders in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) participated in online consultations on the SADC Model Law on gender-based violence.

World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca sent a congratulatory letter to Dr Sima Sami Bahous, the new executive director of UN Women.

Thursdays in Black ambassador Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, chief executive officer at Christian Aid, will lead a Bible study on Wednesday, 22 September to explore gender, economics, and structural injustice. 

A delegation from the Iona Community visited the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 27 August. Part of the community’s “Continentals Meeting,” referring to a yearly gathering of Iona members living in Europe, the group wanted to learn more about the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022. 

Thursdays in Black ambassadors are organizing a series of Bible studies, beginning 5 August, that will help people reflect on and respond to gender-based violence. The first series of 6 reflections is being launched to recognize National Women’s Month in South Africa, and particularly Women’s Day in the country – August 9.

A communique—signed by more than 30 religious organizations, including the World Council of Churches—entitled “People of Faith are Allies to Generation Equality” lifts up the role of religious leaders in transforming gender norms, implementing programmes, reforming unjust laws and promoting gender justice.

This was the question African representatives to the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee asked themselves. More than 30 representatives of churches and WCC staff members from Africa met as part of the WCC central committee meeting held online from 23 – 28 June 2021.

In an ecumenical meeting for North American church leaders on 24 June, prayers and discussion centered on issues that are both deeply painful and seemingly insurmountable: racism, division, vaccine hesitancy, genocide, war. But hope found a way into the virtual gathering as participants supported each other to find ways forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many inequalities among humanity and yet provided an opportunity for more communication with World Council of Churches member churches and partners in different ways, WCC leadership has told journalists.

Across the globe, World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee members demonstrated their commitment to end sexual and gender-based violence by marking “Thursdays in Black” in their online regional meetings today. 

In a video message, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee Dr Agnes Abuom bid goodbye and expressed deep appreciation to Rev. Prof. Dr h.c. Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, who is retiring as president of "Brot für die Welt" and "Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe" after leading the German charity for 20 years. Füllkrug-Weitzel is also a WCC Thursdays in Black ambassador.