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The 44th conference of the International Ecumenical Fellowship (IEF) has released a “Declaration of Wittenberg: We walk towards the visible unity of the Church,” a statement that culminates the week-long assembly, held 21-28 August.

Muslims and Christians were gathered together in Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 27th July. Side-by-side for just peace in the Holy Land. After almost two weeks of tension, violence and killings in Jerusalem. Meetings between church leaders and the Islamic leadership inside the mosque plaza were cheered by the community even amid wafts of tear gas and the rumble of explosives from time to time. Catholic Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, who was supposed to be heading the Christian delegation, was denied entry through Lions’ Gate and, instead, sent his message.

The World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order will begin an 8-day meeting this week in Pretoria, South Africa, dedicating an opening ceremony to youth, reflecting on their struggles with past injustices and noting their key role in opening gateways to the future.

Thirty-five international students from the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, are embarking on a future of ecumenism, dialogue and unity that began with months of intense study and fellowship.

As another academic term is coming to an end at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, 35 international students and faculty have visited the Vatican in Rome, to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, engage in ecumenical dialogue, and to learn more about a variety of churches’ work towards Christian unity.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated worldwide from 18-25 January, will be hosted this year by the Council of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK). As 2017 marks the commemoration of the Reformation, the week of prayer will reflect on the legacy of the Reformation and the current spirit of reconciliation in Christ.

Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist religious leaders met this week in Assisi to discuss peace, while across the ocean in New York City global political leaders assembled at the United Nations also focussed on a troubled world.

“The people of the Caribbean have a rich story to tell, one that can enrich the spiritual lives of Christians around the world,” said Fr Anthony Currer of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. That very story was shared in a heartfelt way this week at an ecumenical gathering to create the first draft of the text that will be used for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2018.

As the Holy and Great Council commenced this week in Crete, Greece, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit attended celebrations of Pentecost with the Orthodox community, offering his prayers and support.

The 2016 WCC Central Committee meeting was called to order by its moderator, Dr Agnes Abuom, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, on the morning of 22 June in the city of Trondheim, Norway.

Twenty-seven international students from the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Switzerland, are embarking on a future of ecumenism, dialogue and unity that began with months of intense study and fellowship.

Anglican parishes in the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Republic of Ireland are seeking new paths and projects for 2016 after considering the results of a survey that identified successes and concerns among laity.

An ecumenical worship service on 21 January at St. James Cathedral in Riga, held during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2016, was vivid confirmation of the ecumenical efforts of Christians in Latvia.

In addition to ecumenical prayer and celebration – with the participation of Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Baptist, Adventist, Pentecostal, Methodist churches, and sometimes even representatives of the Old Believers’ community – Christian unity in Latvia usually takes the form of practical cooperation.

As they prepared materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2016, Christians in Latvia reflected on this year’s theme from 1 Peter 2:9, “Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord.” The week of prayer is traditionally celebrated from 18-25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere).

Material for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is available for the first time on smart phones, computers and tablets in 2016.

Well over 250 young people came to Taizé from 30 August to 6 September 2015 to participate in the first theological symposium on “Brother Roger's Contribution to Theological Thought”. Those invited to this time of reflection and sharing were theological students and young theologians under the age of 40 engaged in research as well as those preparing for service in the church or those already involved in ministry. A wide range of speakers from all over the world aroused a great deal of interest, with contributions offered from a Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic viewpoint, coming from Western and Eastern Europe as well as from Asia, North America, Latin America and Africa.

In Taizé, the week-long Gathering for a New Solidarity, for solidarity with the poor and excluded, reached its climax on the weekend of 15-16 August. The ecumenical community is celebrating in 2015 the seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundation by Roger Schutz, as well as the one hundredth anniversary of his birth (on 12 August 1915). Also 16 August was the tenth anniversary of his death.

Meeting from 17 to 24 June, the newly reconstituted Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC has begun to define its principal trajectories for ecumenical study and common activity from 2015 until the next WCC Assembly in 2020.

During the week of 22 June 2015, the 50th anniversary of the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC will be celebrated by church leaders. A public event to mark the anniversary will be held at the Centro Pro Unione in Rome, Italy on 23 June.