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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.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Switzerland, has taken strong measures to prevent the spread of COVID 19 after Geneva announce local transmission of the virus.
In a letter to the staff, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit wrote that the risk of transmission everywhere requires a new level of measures.

Church leaders from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark signed a statement demanding that we take “human responsibility” for refugees on the border between Turkey and Greece.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is taking steps to prevent the spread of COVID19 (coronavirus), including canceling or postponing certain meetings, limiting travels, closing the Visitors Programme through April, and offering online communication in lieu of person-to-person gatherings.

Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca has been appointed acting World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary beginning 1 April. Sauca, who currently serves as deputy general secretary for the WCC programme on Ecumenical Formation and Bossey Ecumenical Institute, will hold the general secretary post until the WCC Executive Committee meets in June.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has clarified that its Geneva headquarters are not at the centre of a recent occurrence of COVID-19 (coronavirus), after a Swiss television report misidentified the WCC offices in a graphic about a case of the virus in a nearby institution.

In light of concerns about and implications of the current international spread of COVID 19, the coronavirus, the leadership of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee has decided to postpone the upcoming full WCC central committee meeting, currently slated for 18-24 March, along with the executive committee meeting that was to precede it.