World Council of Churches

Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay addressed over 100,000 people attending Asia’s largest Christian gathering on 9 February.

As significant religious observances approach in Jerusalem, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has been sharing a video detailing violations of freedom of worship and the urgent need to safeguard the city as a shared sacred space.

A conference from 17-21 May in Berlin will invite global ecumenists to intentionally engage the outcomes of the Berlin conference in 1884-85, develop a response to the historic and continuing legacies of colonization, and collectively re-envision a de-colonial Africa in a concrete “Anti-Racist Ecumenical Action Plan for Decolonization and Reparations.”

Celia served with the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel from September-December 2024. She was stationed in East Jerusalem. Now that she has returned home to Denmark, she works in an agency under the Ministry of Immigration and Integration. She is also sharing her stories of what she witnessed as an ecumenical accompanier. 

In a short video message, Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, moderator of the World Council of Churches central committee, reflects on the Thursdays in Black Valentine’s Day theme for 2025: “Spread love, choose kindness.”

The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) is coordinating a Regional Women’s Convening from 10 to 13 February in Lautokoa, Fiji. More than 50 women from 30 member churches, 10 national councils, and 18 countries and territories in the region, including Australia and New Zealand, are attending.

For churches in Sweden, the year 2025 is already marked by renewed interest in ecumenism and the encounter with one another across church traditions. 

As part of his visit to India from 8 to 14 February, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay visited diaconal and educational work of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and led two Bible study sessions at the Maramon Convention.

As the world edges closer to exceeding the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold set in the Paris Agreement, members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development gathered in Panama City for a training on climate litigation for churches.

Dr Nora Bayrakdarian, current vice moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, and former member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, has been appointed Minister of Youth and Sports in the Lebanese Republic; and Dr Tarek Mitri, former WCC staff, has been appointed deputy prime minister.

On 8 February, the St Thomas Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Chunakkara, India, celebrated its 125th anniversary, marking a long history of spiritual service and community involvement.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay will visit India from 8-14 February to attend the largest annual Christian gathering in Asia, as well as meet with the National Council of Churches in India.

On Valentine’s Day—celebrated 14 February in many countries—the World Council of Churches Thursdays in Black campaign is celebrating love with a new set of ready-to-send social media cards.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay welcomed the decision by Israel's Supreme Court, ordering the return of Khirbet Zanouta Palestinians to their village in Hebron’s Masafer Yatta area in the West Bank, by 16 February, after they fled due to settler violence. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, in a letter to church leaders and communities in Sweden, expressed grief over reports of a deadly assault at the Campus Risbergska educational complex in Orebro.  

The Universal Periodic Review—a mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 5 years—of Angola and Madagascar took place on 23 and 27 January.

In our brief article, as an expression of love and deep appreciation for the esteemed Archbishop of Tirana, Anastasios, we present, as much as possible, his significant contribution to interfaith dialogue and his active involvement in actions and initiatives aimed at establishing peaceful and just coexistence among all people, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs, or cultural identity.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has offered the first in what will be a series of training workshops on climate litigation. In partnership with the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission (CANACOM), the WCC led the training through a lens of child protection and our future generations.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay called for resuming dialogue that supports peace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict has escalated following an incursion of Rwandan troops into Congolese sovereign territory on the Goma/Rubavu border.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay has described the proposal of US President Trump as “tantamount to proposing full-scale ethnic cleansing and neo-colonization of the homeland of the 2 million Palestinians of Gaza.”