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 heart’s conversation with God online - A reflection by Marianne Ejdersten, director of Communications for the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland. The article published in the Norwegian Magazine for pastors in June, 2020.
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.
One of the foundational moments in the modern ecumenical movement is an encyclical letter issued 100 years ago by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 1 January 1920. As its opening words state, it was addressed “Unto the Churches of Christ everywhere” and sent as a letter to the leaders of key Christian churches. Its first words are an appeal to “Love one another earnestly from the heart,” quoting from 1 Peter 1:22.
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.
Dr Stephen Brown is the editor of The Ecumenical Review. The most recent edition, “The Spirit of Truth in a Digital Age,” reflects on how our perceptions of reality are becoming dependent on the way communication and information ecosystems are organized and regulated as technology has developed.
As of 4 May 2020, the WCC Annual Review 2019 is available for download online. The annual review records many of the WCC’s activities undertaken in 2019 and continuing into 2020.
Bishop Johannes Hempel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony, a former president of the World Council of Churches (WCC) who led his church in East Germany during the period of the Cold War confrontation, the 1989 peaceful revolution, and German unification, has died aged 91.
Seventy-five years ago, on 9 April 1945, the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with six other members of the conspiracy to overthrow Adolf Hitler, was hanged at Flossenbürg execution camp in Germany. He was 39.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has newly released an online publication, “Health and Hope: The Church in Mission and Unity,” a collection of previously published articles that resonate with the worldwide struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
DEADLINE EXTENDED: The World Council of Churches is inviting prayer and music submissions for its 11th Assembly to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2021. Guidelines for submissions have been released, describing how materials will ideally reflect the assembly theme "Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity."
In a historic joint pastoral statement released on 26 March, the World Council of Churches and Regional Ecumenical Organizations affirmed the urgency of standing together to protect life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a historic joint pastoral statement released on 26 March, the World Council of Churches and Regional Ecumenical Organizations affirmed the urgency of standing together to protect life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) paid tribute to Sister Monica Cooney, from New Zealand, a loved and respected member of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, who passed away peacefully on 7 March at the age of 93.