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Are you a #ThursdaysinBlack trailblazer?

On the final day of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) 11th Assembly, participants are contributing to a strong visual statement of their solidarity for a world without rape and violence through the Thursdays in Black campaign.

Uppsala 1968: The times, they were a’changing

By rights, it should have been Africa. The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) First Assembly had been held in Europe (Amsterdam), the second in North America (Evanston, USA), the third in Asia (New Delhi). Hopes were raised that Africa would be the next continent to host the council. But questions arose concerning acts of violence and military conflicts in Africa throughout the 1960s, from the Biafran region in Nigeria to Zanzibar and Eritrea, from Algeria to Mozambique and Rhodesia. And so the Fourth Assembly returned to the “safety” of Europe, to Uppsala in Sweden. In one of history’s ironies, Soviet tanks would roll into Prague one month after the assembly’s close.

Regional perspectives brought to the 11th Assembly

Participants of the World Council of Churches’(WCC) 11th Assembly had the opportunity to meet and share with others from their regions on Friday, September 2. The format and discussions of the eight regions demonstrated the diversity of cultures from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Pacific – and ranged from the issues they wished to make visible in the assembly to regional representation on committees and the election of the WCC presidents.

Choose the power of love: Pre-Assemblies deliver powerful calls

Karlsruhe, a city built over 300 hundred years ago without walls, open to friends and guests —at a time where other cities still hid behind their fortifications —welcomed people from all over the world to four pre-assemblies that are bringing forward powerful calls to the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

From the Ashes of War: The first WCC Assembly in Europe – Amsterdam 1948

As participants in the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) gathered at Amsterdam during August 1948, the Netherlands bore witness to the violence of the Second World War. The port of Rotterdam was rising from near destruction. Many other cities, towns and villages across Europe were struggling to recover. To the east, Germany and Austria were divided into zones of occupation administered by the Allied Powers. Two months earlier, tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western occupiers of the former German capital led to the start of the Berlin Airlift. Since 1945, publications had been increasing their use of the term “Cold War”.

Dr Agnes Abuom reflects on “compassionate love, inclusivity and dignity”—for all

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) focuses on final preparations for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom offered some personal reflections on her leadership role within the WCC, the importance of ecumenical work, the loss of ecumenical luminary Metropolitan Gennadios of Sasima, and the most vital part of her own Christian faith.

Rev. Edna Navaya: “We’ll be able to transform the church”

Rev. Edna Navaya, is moderator of the Presbyterian-Blantyre Synod, Church of Central Africa, Malawi. She was among African women church leaders who gathered in May for an inaugural Ecumenical Womens Initiative for Leadership and Learning.” Below, she reflects on the path to becoming ordained, as well as the importance of gathering women leaders together to exchange ideas and share experiences.

Salt of the Earth group draws young Christians together in West Bank

Osama Sayegh has a heart for numbers: four in Deir Ghazaleh, 35 in Kufr Kad, 50 in Toubas, 35 in Jalameh, 67 in Burqin, 130 in Jenin.

He counts the number of Christians left in these communities across the northern part of the West Bank. He reaches with his heart for the people behind those numbers: why are young Christian families leaving? How can he convince them to stay?