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On Tuesday, 31 March at noon, Central European time, a panel of experienced church leaders and medical experts goes on air to address the global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic from a medical, moral, and spiritual perspective. Moderated by outgoing World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the televised 60-minute session is accessible via the WCC website.

Some church leaders and faith-based relief agencies are concerned that the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic may adversely affect humanitarian aid response, as the disease spreads in some of the vulnerable regions worldwide.
Although disruptions have not been felt yet, according to officials, there is a great potential the negative impacts will emerge, as the cases rise even in conflict countries, where the faith-based humanitarian agencies are the only movers of aid.

Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania and former President of the WCC shares his perspective in this E-interview about the way churches are adapting, both in Albania and worldwide, to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we pray for the researchers trying to find a treatment, churches can also emphasize our duty to stay at home while, at the same time, freeing ourselves from fear and anxiety. We must find ways to assist the sick directly or indirectly, as we prepare for Easter, and open our hearts to the light of hope.

In a historic joint pastoral statement released on 26 March, the World Council of Churches and Regional Ecumenical Organizations affirmed the urgency of standing together to protect life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking into consideration the growing global concerns and implications of the current spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), the World Council of Churches (WCC) will postpone its annual Ecumenical Continuing Formation on Youth seminar in the Pacific to the end of the year 2020, with a date to be announced. The event was scheduled for June 2020 in Tonga.
The WCC is taking steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including cancelling or postponing certain meetings and limiting travels.

The WCC is offering member churches some resources with a human face during the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of eight resource people has been made available to consult on how churches can discern their roles during the coronavirus pandemic, how they can adapt as faith communities, and how they can connect and share with each other.

After more than 30 years as a pastor, ecumenist and church leader, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit firmly believes that the church can change the world. As general secretary of the WCC for the past ten years, he has witnessed what Jesus Christ means to people of faith around the globe. By the end of this month he heads home to lead the Church of Norway as presiding bishop of its bishop’s conference.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit invites all member churches for a joint prayer, saying the Lord’s Prayer together on Wednesday 25 March at noon.

In a reflection offered for World Water Day, observed 22 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) reflects on the importance of hand-washing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and the moderator of the WCC Central Committee Dr Agnes Abuom urged people and churches to give highest priority to “doing whatever we can do to protect life” and ”ask churches not to have public services tomorrow as this can become hubs of transmission of the virus” and to follow strictly the rules and guidelines from authorities based on WHO guidelines.

Leaders in the World Council of Churches (WCC) advise the faithful to use information based on science and evidence and to respect authorities’ advice if we are to overcome the novel coronavirus COVID-19 afflicting humanity and growing into new areas such as Africa.

On World Water Day, observed 22 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance released a joint statement urging churches and faith-based organisations to ensure that people have access to clean, affordable, sufficient water to meet their physical and domestic needs, including that of hand-washing.

In a pastoral letter to WCC member churches and ecumenical partners, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom urged people to give highest priority to “doing whatever we can do to protect life” and “This is a time to touch each other’s hearts, by what we say, what we share, what we do – and what we do not do – to protect the life God loves so much.”

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) is urging us all to use and promote technologies to unite people and communities divided by adversity.

As the world grapples with the spread of the new coronavirus, churches are finding ways to continue their traditions, but now by virtual means. On the coming Sabbath, churches around the world will engage in prayer, not publicly – as the church moves out of big public buildings – but inside the private spaces of homes.

In the past several months, beginning with an epidemic that quickly became an emergency situation, COVID-19 has escalated into a global crisis, spreading fear and uncertainty everywhere.

The WCC, via a specific landing page on its website, is reaching out to the worldwide fellowship with a sense of pastoral care amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to require the world to protect its most vulnerable people, the reality of undernourishment faces more than 820 million people in the world. This increases vulnerability in our one human family. Dr Manoj Kurian, coordinator of the WCC Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, reflects on the current state of food security.

World Council of Churches (WCC) programme executive for Human Rights and Disarmament Jennifer Philpot-Nissen told a parliamentary standing committee in Fiji that victims of nuclear testing in the Pacific are often marginalized, and the consequences of the testing in the region have largely remained invisible and unaddressed by the wider world.

People pray daily for an end to the coronavirus-COVID-19 that is gripping the world, turning human interaction into a virtual affair and upending lives everywhere during a struggle against a silent enemy about which little is known.