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Behind Bali’s luxury hotels, sandy beaches and lush landscapes pampering tourists from all around the world, one finds a heartbreaking poverty, and its most vulnerable victims are children.

The World Association for Christian Communication, as part of observing International Women’s Day, is advocating for gender equality in the news media.

The WCC Executive Committee met in Uppsala, Sweden from 1-8 November to approve the 2019 programme plans and budget, follow up and decide on a variety of assembly matters, review the WCC strategic plan, discuss world affairs and issue seven statements in response to current situations. The Executive Committee also discerned the way forward for the WCC’s Communication Strategy.

On 7 November, the WCC Executive Committee approved a Communication Strategy through 2021, the year of the next WCC Assembly.

A Jerusalem administrative appeals court on 17 October invalidated a decision by the state to bar entry into the country of Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

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.

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.

Thirty years ago, the founders of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women were searching for ways to not only help women across the globe seek justice but also highlight their contributions to churches and the world.

The Romani people, also known as the Roma, migrated from northwest India 1,500 years ago. Once they arrived in Europe, they spread across the continent from the Balkan region. Now Romani live worldwide, though principally in Europe.

At the 75th International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, the film “Tel Aviv on Fire” won an Interfilm award for promoting interreligious dialogue. The film, directed by Sameh Zoabi, is a comedy in which a Palestinian writer draws upon the skills and experiences of an Israeli checkpoint commander to enhance a TV series, “Tel Aviv on Fire.”

WCC News spoke to Rev. Henrik Grape, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Working Group on Climate Justice. He was on his way home after attending an ecumenical gathering in Assisi.

“We have sought to support dialogue as a means to resolve differences, and to reaffirm and strengthen calls for justice, peace and respect for diverse ways of thinking in contemporary societies”, reads a message issued by the members of an ecumenical delegation organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) that visited Nicaragua on 28-29 August.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, as head of a delegation visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), offered a sermon on 19 August encouraging peacemakers during an ecumenical service in the Protestant Cathedral in Kinshasa.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) “Pilgrim Team” will visit Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, from 18-23 August. Under the theme “African Women of Faith and Gender Justice,” the group aims to acknowledge and build women’s roles in church and society. By focusing on gender justice, and on peace with no violence against women, the Pilgrim Team will raise awareness, and call churches and ecumenical partners to action together for justice and peace.

At the 71st Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, held 1-11 August, the Ecumenical Jury awarded its prize to the film “Sibel,” directed by Guillaume Giovanetti and Çağla Zencirci.

On 26 July at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, there was a marked change in colour at the Interfaith Networking Zone. It was Thursday, and from morning prayers to the evening informal networking, the theme was “black”.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has unveiled a new design for the Thursdays in Black campaign during its Central Committee meeting in mid-June. The design aims to emphasize the journey and solidarity of the global campaign against rape and violence and give new momentum to a movement that recognizes the resistance and resilience of women in the face of violence.

Losing his hearing and speaking ability as a young man has not deterred Kenyan Karim Okiki in his wood carving, and a symbolic sculpted cross he presented to Pope Francis on his visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva represents people with disabilities everywhere.
“I would like this cross to speak to Pope Francis and the churches worldwide on the need to embrace persons with disabilities especially the deaf and hard of hearing as part of the church today,” said Okiki.

In a powerful symbol of unity, Christians from North and South Korea sang together yesterday during celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The Koreans linked arms to sing the 600-year-old folk song Arirang that is the unofficial anthem of Korea – the united Korea that existed until civil war divided the country in the 1950s.

As people in Seoul held a candlelight vigil on 7 June to pray for peace on the Korean Peninsula, they were joined by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), and hundreds of others across the world.