The Eighth Buddhist-Christian Colloquium, organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in collaboration with Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University and the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Cambodia, released a communique entitled “Buddhists and Christians Working Together for Peace through Reconciliation and Resilience.”
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is involved in many different aspects of the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council, currently convening in Geneva from 16 June to 9 July.
Faith-based groups, collaborating with their partners, including the World Council of Churches, will be advocating for digital justice at the “World Summit on Information Society +20,” to be hosted by the International Telecommunication Union from 7-11 July in Geneva.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, in a statement, reiterated the foundational assertion that rejects war as contrary to God’s will, and called for an immediate global ceasefire as a moral imperative.
A World Council of Churches (WCC) minute on the official US federal holiday of Juneteenth noted that the holiday not only celebrates the emancipation of formerly enslaved people of African descent in the US-North America context, but also “marks the memory of the broader global history/herstory of the transatlantic (‘Middle Passage’) extraction of African peoples and natural resources taken from Africa that still has consequences today, including the racialized impact of the debt and climate crisis.”
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee expressed “deep lamentation and outrage” as the crisis in Palestine and Israel escalates to levels that flagrantly violate international humanitarian and human rights law as well as the most basic principles of morality.
The Prophetic Witness for Life, Justice, and Peace Conference and Seminars concluded in Johannesburg on 16 June, marking a moment of reawakening and recommitment for church leaders and partners across southern Africa. Participants pledged to transform the insights and prophetic calling of their gathering into tangible action within their congregations, communities, and countries.
On 15 June, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Kairos Document and the 1976 Soweto Uprising, church leaders from across denominations and southern African countries embarked on a pilgrimage of reflection, lament, and discernment.
Participants in an ongoing “Prophetic Witness for Life, Justice, and Peace Conference” on 14 June in Johannesburg, South Africa, broke into seminars focusing on many facets of justice—climate, economic, racial, gender, and health.
Churches in South Sudan have begun peace prayers for the country that will last for 70 days. Rev. Tut Kony Nyang Kon, general secretary of the South Sudan Council of Churches, announced the prayers on 9 June, as a complex crisis, underlined by armed conflicts, food insecurity, and displacement continued to unfold in the world’s youngest nation.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) had input into the 49th Session of Universal Periodic Review, a process in which UN member states undergo a peer review of their human rights records.
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, in a keynote speech titled “The Global Persistence of Anti-Black Racism and Role of the Church,” on 19 May, analyzed the enduring issue of anti-Black racism rooted in historical legacies of slavery and colonialism.
An international conference, “Berlin 1884–1885 and Anti-Black Racism: In Search of a Shared Anti-Racist Ecumenical Vision,” acknowledged that the deep wounds of colonialism carved 140 years ago are by no means healed—but that churches can reframe relationships in a radical, de-colonial manner.
An Armenian Heritage Conference opened in Bern, Switzerland, on 27 May to address the consequences of the conflict in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh with regard to the protection of Armenian religious and cultural heritage, the human rights of its people, and the future security of the Armenian nation.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay extended greetings to Buddhist communities and friends around the world for the Buddhist feast of Vesak.
People in Ukraine observed their fourth Easter since the Russian invasion of their nation. Oleksandra Kovalenko, a member of the Ukrainian delegation at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, and Valentyn Hrebennyk, a graduate of the WCC Ecumenical Institute at Bossey shares their Easter experience and encourages the WCC fellowship to continue praying for people of Ukraine.
Commemorating the 140th anniversary of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference that legitimized the colonial partitioning of Africa, this global event will confront the ongoing legacies of colonialism and systemic racism. At a time of growing polarization, the conference aims to offer an ecumenical and ethical framework of justice and solidarity.
As drone bombs strike Port Sudan, Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo, primate of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church of Sudan, expressed concern at the attacks, fearing this would further escalate the two-year war in the northeastern African country.
In a joint statement, the World Council of Churches, All Africa Conference of Churches, Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa, and ACT Alliance expressed deep concern and strong condemnation of the violent escalation of hostilities in Sudan, specifically the recent attacks on the city of Port Sudan by the Rapid Support Forces.
140 years after the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, one of the most consequential geopolitical gatherings in modern history, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ecumenical partners
