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During his long career, Weber, who passed away on 18 October, made the Bible come alive for thousands of people through Bible studies that he coordinated with groups from many different cultures, contexts and situations.

As the National Council of Churches (USA) held an online Christian Unity Gathering on 12-13 October, Rev. James A. Forbes reflected to a tired nation: “Does anybody question whether we’ve seen some plagues?”

A 13 Million Campaign is underway to engage faith leaders, individuals and communities in promoting access to health services for the 13 million children, women and men living with HIV who are not yet on antiretroviral treatment.

The World Council of Churches is publishing a series of interviews that portray insights and reflections from the leaders of faith-based global and regional humanitarian and development organizations. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is general secretary of ACT Alliance, which has secretariats in Switzerland, Jordan, Thailand, El Salvador, Kenya, Canada and New York. In addition, the ACT Alliance Advocacy office to the EU is based in Brussels, Belgium.

A new English-language biography of Willem A. Visser ’t Hooft, the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has been published in the year that marks the 120th anniversary of his birth.

During a webtalk entitled “10 years Human Right to Water - problems, positions, perspectives,” held on 1 September, expert speakers highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the acute lack of water and the unacceptable sanitary conditions in which large parts of the world’s population have to live every day. Some 3 in 10 people worldwide still do not have safe access to clean drinking water. More than half of the global population cannot use acceptable toilets.

The latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), focuses on the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, held in Crete in June 2016, the result of more than a century of efforts to gather the Orthodox churches to reach a common mind on the main challenges they face.

Protopresbyter Boris Bobrinskoy, one of the best-known Orthodox theologians in France and a former member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission, passed away in Paris in the night from 6 to 7 August at the age of 95. He was highly respected for the contributions he made to ecumenical dialogues and academic institutions over many decades. In a tribute published in its website, the WCC celebrated Bobrinskoy’s “long and impressive ecumenical pilgrimage.”

“It is with great sadness that the World Council of Churches received news about the passing away of Rev. Dr Micheline Kamba Kasongo, an outstanding theologian and ecumenist who contributed enormously to many areas in the ecumenical movement,” said Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

In a meeting with a format and focus dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) this week addressed vital international developments and situations.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee will meet 20-24 July by videoconference to address the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on WCC work in 2020 and 2021, and plans to scale up ecumenical cooperation on overcoming racism.

The Executive Committee of the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC) met online on 6 July under the leadership of His Eminence Archbishop and Metropolitan Nifon of Târgoviște, Romanian Orthodox Church, and Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland.

Who on earth decided in June 1920 in a conference held in Crans, near Geneva, that the following year at Lake Mohonk, New York, an International Missionary Council would be established and give an enormous institutional impulse to the emerging ecumenical movement?

The year 2020 is one etched forever in our memories. The unimaginable happened when a virus seized the world. Vulnerability became the norm, and fiction became a reality. Overnight life became more precious for all of us, the world’s billions. Normality took a break; frustration set in. Everything we took for granted went on hold.

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread loss and hardship, people across the world have drawn closer to the World Council of Churches (WCC), showing increased interest in many channels of communication.

The WCC Annual Review 2019 is now available in four languages: English, German, French and Spanish. Entitled “One human family”, the annual review records many of the WCC’s activities undertaken in 2019 and continuing into 2020.

Technology is transforming the world, and the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), offers theological and ethical perspectives on the digital age.

A series of online Working Together meetings last week helped strengthen collaboration between the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its round table partner and specialized ministries, including ACT Alliance. The meetings, which normally takes place every May at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute was convened online by WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca.

In historic Nidaros Cathedral, the ancient shrine and pilgrimage destination of medieval Trondheim, the Church of Norway on Sunday, 10 May 2020, consecrated the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit as bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros and installed him as Preses or presiding bishop of its Bishops’ Conference.