Search results

Sharing hopes and challenges for the search for peace on the Korean peninsula, members of the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification & Development on the Korean Peninsula (EFK) gathered for an informal meeting this week.

In a 1 September letter to President Joe Biden, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca appealed for reconsideration on sanctions against North Korea.

As human rights violations worsen in the Philippines, religious leaders there are urging global solidarity for their increasingly urgent quest for justice.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), with the Korea Institute for National Unification, reflected on international cooperation for improvement of human rights and ecumenical cooperation for diakonia ministry in North Korea.

Members of a church-backed coalition have called on Indonesia to open access to West Papua for international journalists, independent observers, human rights organizations and the International Red Cross.

Hope in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace formed the integral thread for proceedings at the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Trondheim, Norway this week. The 2016 meeting took place 22-28 June, the second gathering since the Central Committee was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

Deeply concerned for migrants in many regions, especially those “driven to undertake journeys of desperate risk and danger”, the WCC Executive Committee has declared: “All members of the international community have a moral and legal duty to save the lives of those in jeopardy at sea or in transit, regardless of their origin and status.”

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.

Qualities of the Pacific region – communal life, unbroken tradition of faith, work to combat injustice, deep scriptural grounding – are valuable contributions toward fulfilling the WCC call for a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”, said Rev. Dr Mele’ana Puloka, WCC president for the Pacific.

The WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, concluded on 8 November, acting to inspire churches to renew their commitments to justice and peace. Through varied encounters and dialogue within the fellowship of churches, the Assembly has made concrete decisions and recommendations setting priorities for the future work of the WCC.

In a recent solidarity visit to Bangladesh, an ecumenical delegation was updated about the on-going persecution and attacks against religious minorities occurring in the country since early March of this year.