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Taking Action Against Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence

Toolkit for Trainers and Advocates

Copublication of WACC and WCC.

The Toolkit equips trainers and advocates to plan and facilitate training sessions on monitoring misogyny on social media.

Taking Action Against Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence outlines key concepts, with practical exercises, to raise participants’ awareness of gender cyberviolence. It presents the tools needed to conduct social media monitoring, report on the results, and plan further monitoring.

The toolkit is divided into five sections that facilitators can use to structure training sessions:

  • Today’s media landscape
  • Impact of tech-facilitated gender-based violence
  • Methodology of social media monitoring
  • Social media monitoring in practice
  • Action plan for participants

Caribbean Rising . . .

On a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace

This multi-author publication reflects the rhythm of Caribbean orature and storytelling of the many peoples that inhabited the region who brought with them their own expressions of faith.
In the foreword, WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay writes, “It is only natural that when the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace was envisaged by the 2013 WCC assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, it would be unpacked in the Caribbean region through a decolonial lens. While this project was initiated under the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, its publication at this time serves as a bridge between the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace and the ongoing Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. . .  Caribbean Rising embodies the hope of a new day in the ecumenical movement which affirms that all o’ we is one family. This volume is an overture from the people of the Caribbean to the fellowship of churches in the WCC today. . .. Both globally and locally, Caribbean theologians and church leaders have influenced the ecumenical movement profoundly. This includes the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) involvement in decolonisation and combatting racism.”

Good News about HIV Treatment, Cure, and Healing

Conversations between Faith Leaders and Communities in Nigeria
Gracia Violeta Ross
Wushishi Yusuf
Yusuf Saidu Mohammed

A Discussion Document 

HIV treatment is very effective and tolerable nowadays. However, some faith leaders, out of misinformation, continue spreading messages of exclusive healing by faith, asking people living with HIV to abandon their medications as proof of their faith in God.

In Good News about HIV Treatment, Cure, and Healing, the initiators of the conversations and the discussants analyzed the concepts of treatment, cure, and healing in HIV, using principles of Christian and Muslim theologies, and concluded that faith communities have the mandate to heal. They discussed the six recent six cases of people with HIV who have been declared cured, which sparks hope for a definitive cure for all. Meanwhile, faith communities must support people living with HIV in adhering to their treatment. Medications and treatments are part of the healing touch of God, who is the ultimate source of healing.

Q&A Mpox and the Role of Faith Communities

This simple factsheet provides background about the Mpox zoonotic disease,: what it is, how it is transmitted, signs and symptoms, vaccines and treatment, and, most importantly, the role of faith communities in responding to the disease.

Anti-Racist Churches

Ecumenical Anti-Racism, Anti-Xenophobia, and Anti-Discrimination Contextual Bible Studies
Eric Nii Bortey Anum
Masiiwa Ragies Gunda

God’s created world is today groaning under the burdens that God’s creation has had to carry for centuries, caused by our appetite to consume. The spirit of uninhibited consumption led to the exploitation of creation, the enslavement of peoples, the colonization of lands and peoples and the wanton extraction and exploitation of natural resources from far and wide. Entire groups of people have been racially exploited. The World Council of Churches acknowledges that even faith communities, including some of its member churches and their members, have participated and contributed to the many cases of racially motivated exploitation, past and present. <p>

The World Council of Churches stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of racism, xenophobia, casteism, and all other forms of discrimination. Through this booklet, the WCC offers Christian communities a resource to develop biblically-based Christian responses to overcome these scourges.

Anti-Bias Churches

An Ecumenical Anti-(Un)Conscious Bias Toolkit
Dr Elaine Brown Spencer
Dr Masiiwa Ragies Gunda

Unlearning—Undoing—Relearning— Redoing

Unconscious biases and microaggressions are being experienced by many people in society, as well as in faith communities. Faith-based and related workplaces are not immune to these attitudes and practices. While significant investment has gone into mitigating conscious biases, racism, xenophobia, casteism and discrimination, the impact of unconscious biases and microaggressions are equally destructive. This toolkit invites and challenges Christians to intentionally invest in mitigating unconscious biases and microaggressions by employing a diversity, equity and inclusion lens in policies, practices and programming. Inclusive cultures in community and workplaces are more desirable and Christ-like.

"Human Rights in Indonesia” side event addressed crises in West Papua

A side event to the 57th UN Human Rights Council entitled “Human Rights in West Papua,” hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and partner organizations on 1 October, addressed the dire human rights situation in the Papuan provinces of Indonesia, with ongoing violations that include extra-judicial killings, internal displacement due to armed conflict, restrictions on civil liberties, and a growing number of cases of land grabbing. 

A liturgical opportunity; an ecumenical kairos

An emerging consensus to enhance the “feast of creation” and honour the creator

An Emerging Consensus to Enhance the “Feast Of Creation” and Honour the Creator - The story so far

In March 2024, over a hundred delegates from all continents gathered in Assisi – with many more connecting remotely – to consider the idea of elevating the “Feast of Creation” from its current “world day of prayer” status to become a liturgical feast.

This report tells the “story” of that remarkable gathering, describing the origin of the observance, the theological and liturgical dialogues carried out in Assisi, and the extraordinary consensus that emerged. It also provides some framing of the theological and liturgical questions that remain open, and proposes next steps and directions for ongoing discernment during 2024-2025. Our hope is that this story will be a useful resource as our conversation is taken forward in different denominational contexts.

Mitigating Racial and Gender (In)Justice

An Invitation to Collaborate with the WCC
Nicqi Ashwood
Masiiwa Gunda

The transversals of Overcoming Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Discrimination and the Just Community of Women and Men of the  WCC are committed to ‘leaving no one behind’ by ensuring that issues of dignity and equity are included in all conversations as faith communities. They seek to strengthen male-female and race relations within the WCC fellowship, while advocating for shifts in the power structures which undergird this.

Recognising the role of Western epistemological systems in the gender and racial binaries, they advocate for decolonisation and decoloniality in their work and beyond.

This brochure shares ore information about the work and invites the fellowship to this pilgrimage of discovery, truth-telling, and transformation from the churches to the world and back to the churches.

2025 – An Ecumenical Year on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity

The ecumenical fellowship find inspiration in two major anniversaries that fall in 2025, the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 and the 100th anniversary of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925.

This brochure highlights WCC activities and events that will commemorate these two events, but also a number of other significant anniversaries.

Ecumenical International Youth Day 2024 Toolkit

Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones 2nd Edition
Andrei Ursulean
Stefan Wilson

Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones continues the theme of last year’s Ecumenical Youth Day. Political insurrection and ideologies have permeated the fabric of society. This has caused division and hatred, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.

Addressing the realities young people face in the world today represents a moral imperative for, and a crucial aspect of, peace-building. Through this toolkit, the World Council of Churches, via its Commission on Young People in the Ecumenical Movement (YPEM), invites all member churches and ecumenical partners to participate in this year’s International Youth Day. By doing so, we affirm youth agency and draw attention to the situation of young people living in the realities of wars, conflicts, and injustice, whether in civil or cross-border wars. 

This document is adapted from the 2023 toolkit and contains adaptable resources and suggested ways to observe this day. 

Save Children's Lives

Responsible Banking Survival Guide
Frederique Seidel
Jodie Salter

The climate emergency represents the most dangerous threat to children’s lives and the survival of future generations. Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the most significant contributor to the global climate emergency, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Therefore, halting new investments in fossil fuel expansion is one of the most powerful ways to accelerate climate solutions and save children’s lives.
This document provides concise guidelines for using the investment potential of individuals, organisations and churches to stop investment in fossil fuels.

“Transformative Spiritualitäten für den Pilgerweg der Gerechtigkeit und des Friedens” now available in German

“Transformative Spiritualities for the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” a selection of reflections from Indigenous perspectives to women’s voices, from black communities ́ to campesino/as ́struggles, from specific Christian traditions to sister faiths,” is now also available in German as Transformative Spiritualitäten für den Pilgerweg der Gerechtigkeit und des Friedens.

Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders

Reflections from GETI 2022

The Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) of 2022 was an intercultural, short-term, academic study and exposure programme. It was a six-week blended learning experience - four weeks online and two weeks in residence alongside the 11th WCC Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 28 August to 8 September 2022. The programme was designed to explore the theme, “Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders”. 

The tapestry that ensues in this volume brings together the keynote contributions of plenary speakers with the interventions and perspectives of GETI 2022 students in an intergenerational and interdisciplinary theological discussion grounded in scripture and in Christ’s love.

Compendium of Promising Practices of African Faith Community Interventions against Paediatric and Adolescent HIV

Executive Summary

UNAIDS and PEPFAR developed this compendium in 2023. WCC collaborated on translating the Executive Summary into French and Portuguese.

This vital report brings together essential lessons from faith communities’ exceptional leadership in addressing the challenge of HIV in children. It documents evidence from the core roles that faith communities have played in identifying undiagnosed children living with HIV, improving the continuity of treatment, and supporting adherence to care and treatment. It also documents lessons from how faith leaders have driven advocacy to tackle stigma and discrimination and push for targets to be achieved. It will help faith communities and those who support and partner with them to advance a step change in progress towards the goal of ending AIDS in children by 2030.

Waterfall of Solidarity and Resistance

sharing the stories

The Waterfall of Solidarity and Resistance is a tapestry of over 180 cloth panels, all conveying stories of pain, resistance and hope in efforts to overcome sexual and gender-based violence.  The World Council of Churches invited individuals and groups to contribute panels as part of the Thursdays in Black global movement, and the resulting tapestry was launched at the WCC’s 11th Assembly in September 2022. 

The tapestry itself makes a profound and moving statement of our need and commitment to a world without rape and violence. This publication brings all the panels and the stories and explanations of their creation together so that the words and images can make an even greater impact in our homes and communities.