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As a Pentecostal, I have “dreamed dreams” and had visions aplenty, but often it has been the WCC that brought those dreams and visions to life. What is found in this report fulfills a vision that I took with me to Geneva in 1989 in a meeting with then-general secretary Emilio Castro. During that visit, I called on the WCC to bring together 120 Pentecostal scholars from around the world to the WCC 7th Assembly known as Canberra ’91.

The Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey is a unique place for ecumenical education—and, yes, it's so true and real.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) was able to gather believers from different parts of the world for its 11th assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany. The assembly proved to be one of love and unity.

Our successful visit to Rome with various ecumenical deliberations itself testifies that ecumenical engagements can move forward despite the pandemic. The launch of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity document “Ecumenism in a Time of Pandemic: From Crisis to Opportunity,” followed by an ecumenical panel discussion, helped us to understand how different churches have approached the pandemic. 

The Cold War never ended on the Korean Peninsula, and no peace agreement was signed. The Korean Peninsula has, all along, been a silent war. A leftover from the Cold War, not yet solved. And a conflict forgotten by many.

15 July 2020 marked 35 years of the launch of “Brasil: Nunca Mais” (‘Brazil: Never Again’, in English) a book in which episodes of torture under the military dictatorship in Brazil between 1964 and 1979 are documented.

In July 2014, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee adopted a statement entitled "Towards a Nuclear-free World." In the same year, on 4 August, on behalf of the world's 500 million Christians, WCC Asia president Dr Chang Sang visited Japan, and delivered this statement in person to the chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, Yoshihide Suga. The churches in Japan, which experienced Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were greatly encouraged by these WCC actions.

When I joined the World Council of Churches as an intern of the Public Information team in 2005, I often struggled to comprehend the “real” value of communicating themes related to ecumenism and peace.

Speakers at a seminar for teachers, university students and professionals from the Roman Catholic and Protestant church in Geneva underlined the importance of celebrating the sanctity of water in Christianity and also of advancing the human right to water through international advocacy.

50 years after the 1968 Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olle Alkholm, vice president of the Uniting Church in Sweden, shares a personal reflection, based on his only memory from that year.

I participated as an international observer in the Zimbabwe 2018 harmonised elections, representing the World Council of Churches. I am very impressed with the work of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

Kerstin Pihl and Sven Eckerdal are currently in Zimbabwe to monitor the first election to take place since Robert Mugabe was forced to leave power in November 2017. Here comes a first snapshot of the situation in the country.

Water is a key resource both to provide drinking water and to generate food and energy for a growing world population. A fifth of the global population lives in regions affected by water stress - in regions where more water is used than can naturally be recharged.

When Pope Francis landed in Geneva slightly after 10am local time on 21 June for his visit to the World Council of Churches in an Alitalia plane with a discreet papal coat of arms, he was accompanied by a 60-strong contingent of journalists collectively known as the “VAMP,” for Vatican Accredited Media Personnel.

When I was a young adult I visited the home of Mrs. Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela. I was blessed to meet her and a few of her family members. I also heard her speak at a program in Soweto. Since this time, I have come to a deeper understanding about her and the spouses of celebrated leaders. Too often their leadership is not only overlooked but not considered.

I was sitting in the space reserved for media, in the back of the plenary hall, when Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, of the Roman Catholic Church, brought greetings from Pope Francis to the 12th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Windhoek, Namibia.

For the past 26 years, the global water community is gathering in Stockholm for a week in August or September, at the World Water Week, organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, to discuss the importance of water for human development and a sustainable planet. Call it a coincidence: just one year before the first World Water Week, September 1st was proclaimed as a day of prayer for the environment by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. For some reason, in the past, faith communities, even though engaged in the water sector, were barely present at the World Water Week.

Indonesia had been chosen as the third YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) venue, as it represents a multi-cultural and multi-religious context which is also sensitive to conflict. For about 14 days there were lectures, discussions, and exposure visits to some places to get to know more about the multi-religious reality in Indonesia, issues that need to be solved and need our action rather then talk and think only.