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Christian greetings from the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Methodist World Council.

Tribulation” is certainly an appropriate description for the previously unimaginable scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected almost everyone around the world, whether through the direct impacts on our health or the health of our loved ones, the sudden restrictions on all our movements, or the fear of the virus arriving in our lives.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Council for World Mission (CWM), have followed with profound concern how the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic crisis have continued to destroy lives and livelihood around the world. To date this has resulted in more than half a million deaths, massive unemployment, increase of debts, poverty, and inequality in many parts of the world.

From the Old Jerusalem to the New: Lamentations to Blessings, Bible study in times of COVID-19 by Annika Mathews

Pastoral letter by WCC Moderator Dr Agnes Abuom and General Secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Following Jesus requires consistency between the proclamation of our faith, liturgy and prayer, and the practice of justice that we develop, since the peace of God is a fruit of that justice. This gospel passage allows us to ask ourselves whether we are followers of Jesus.

I write to you today out of urgent and earnest concern for our world and the advancing peril represented by climate change. Our faith in the creator, our love for creation, and our discipleship in the company of Jesus are all being put to the test by this crisis.

WCC letter to Ms. Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights on Human rights violations in West Bank, East Jerusalem

Letter of condolence by Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, expressing deep sadness at ultimely passing of Rev. Robina Winbush.

Reflection on Famine & Hunger for the Global Day of Prayer in End Famine 2018

The several climatic events in the Book of Jonah present all environmental concerns: the sea calming down (1:15), making a plant grow (4:6), and the sending of a worm (4:7), and all play a particular role in God’s plan. They are used in the text as divine emissaries, human begin is the only one to oppose God’s will in these dramatic scenes. The ecological problem and the attributes associated with the creatures remain a fundamental issue from Jonah to our current daily reality. The worm, a lowly creature, is elevated as well as the ephemeral plant. Accordingly, Jonah has to learn that the plant is appointed by God. The ecological reading on the Book of Jonah invites us to the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in relation to the ecological justice.

Jesus sends out his disciples to the world of injustice and violence. The disciples, who are on a pilgrimage, are not saints but ordinary people, and they are not sent with empty hands but with power to force out evil spirits (Matt. 10:1). As Jesus warns the disciples,“I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves” (Matt. 10:16). The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace is not an easy walk. It is a courageous and costly participation in God’s pilgrimage of justice and peace. Today, refugees bring justice and peace because God wants to meet us in them. In this way, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace could be a channel of blessing because pilgrims themselves are the recipients.

The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace reaches out to persons who are mired in the wilderness of injustice and who lack peace, as in the story of Hagar’s journey in Genesis. The story is reflected in the story of the Caribbean. Levels of inequality between women and men still exist in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. The story of Hagar unfolds God’s plans through selected agents. As the Caribbean seeks to journey toward peace and justice in the matter of social justice, human rights, and human reproductive rights, responsibilities and practices, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace can effectively play a supportive role.

Abram’s journey in Genesis 12 as a response to God’s guidance becomes a pilgrimage of blessings. The unnamed destination of his pilgrimage is encountering people and their land. Abram will become a a kind of “platform” of blessings among other peoples and nations, rather than an exemplar of the exercise of power and control over those peoples and their land. As God commissioned Abram to go forth as a source of blessings, God calls us to go in the pilgrimage of blessings.

Response from EWN on the Encyclical “Laudato si” prepared by the EWN - International Reference Group – 2015

Letter from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit to the Vanuatu Christian Council expressing solidarity with churches in Vanuatu after the 15 March cyclone.

Letter from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit to Rev. Kalsakau Urtalu Zacharie of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu expressing solidarity with churches in Vanuatu after the 15 March cyclone.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit’s letter of condolences for the victims of South Korea ferry disaster. The letter was sent to the National Council of Churches in Korea and the WCC member churches in the Republic of Korea, on 23 April 2014.