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CCME moderator Fiona Kendall said that working in partnership is at the heart of CCME's ethos. “More than ever, issues connected with migration have the capacity to polarise our communities and our politics,” she said. “Strengthened collaboration between CCME and WCC helps us to emphasise much-needed faith perspectives in this challenging space."
CCME general secretary Torsten Moritz said that migration and the work with and for migrants is one of the most central issues of Christian witness in our days. “With the respective Europe-wide and global focus, an even closer and more strategic cooperation of CCME and WCC will enhance the visibility and impact what our member churches are doing,” he said.
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Gloria Charles/WCC
Rev. Dr Kuzipa Nalwamba, WCC programme director for Unity, Mission, and Ecumenical Formation, said that the discussions were fruitful.
"The founding intuition of the CCME in 1964 remains imbedded in the ethos of WCC work, and has resonance with the 2023-2030 strategic priorities,” she said. “CCME's 60th anniversary creates an opportunity for WCC to recommit to our shared Christian call to love, recognising our shared human experience of being ‘strangers’ that is echoed in the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity, grounded on the biblical principle of hospitality."
Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of communication, reflected that encounters such as the WCC Pilgrim Team visit in 2022 to Italy have paved the way for even closer collaboration. “The WCC and CCME can encourage and empower our existing networks, ultimately sharing stories of migrants across the world.”
The leadership meeting was accompanied by Dr Masiiwa Gunda, WCC programme executive for programmatic responses on overcoming racism and WCC representative in the CCME board, and Joy Eva Bohol, Regional Migration Specialist Europe, Global Ministries.