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The brutal killing of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, at the hands of two white security guards outside a supermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 19 November, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, has sparked outrage across the country. World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches raised their voices to condemn the killing and to express deep concern regarding systemic racial injustice in Brazil.

Upon the 20th anniversary of the UN Resolution 1325, the question is still being answered as to whether women’s important work in peace and security is getting the visibility it deserves.

Rt. Rev. Joy Evelyn Abdul-Mohan is moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago. She shares reflections on the role of prayer in developing a healthy democracy, and the unique challenges of her nation and her faith community.

As coronavirus cases rise sharply in Latin American countries, so has violence against women.

One of the main voices of the Brazilian and Latin American ecumenical movement, Jether Pereira Ramalho passed away on 28 June, in Rio, leaving behind a legacy of inspiration, dedication and transformation to many generations.

Dr Jurjen Zeilstra is a historian and theologian. His biography “Visser 't Hooft, 1900-1985 Living for the Unity of the Church” served as a dissertation in the humanities at the Amsterdam Free University in order to receive the degree of Ph.D. in 2018. Willem Visser 't Hooft led the World Council of Churches (WCC) during its formative stages. Below, Dr Zeilstra reflects on what it was like to study the life of Visser 't Hooft.

World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri reflected on the recent Global Consultation on the Decade of the Churches in Solidarity, and what the insights gathered there might mean for the ecumenical movement.

Rev Prof. Dr Ofelia Ortega Suárez is a retired professor of Theology and Gender, and Christian Ethics for the Reformed-Presbyterian Church in Cuba. Ortega Suárez was born in Cuba. After her undergraduate studies in Theology and Christian Education at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, she completed her post-graduate studies in Ecumenical Theology at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey. She returned to Cuba and obtained her master's degrees in Divinity and Education.

During an open air common prayer event held in Nelson Mandela Park in Kingston, Jamaica on 4 October, women and men processed and sang, most of them dressed in black as they renewed and expanded their commitment to the Thursdays in Black campaign seeking a world free from rape and violence.

Linette Vassel has been associated with the struggle for women’s rights in the Caribbean since the 1970s. She was the first coordinator of the Committee of Women for Progress, an activist organisation formed in 1976 which was among the pioneering organisations for the struggle for maternity leave with pay for women.