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Inside Church Testimonies

US bishops urge Americans to follow Martin Luther King’s prophetic witness

The United States is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which since 1983 has been observed on the third Monday of January to commemorate the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy.

In a statement for the observance, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, has called on all people of goodwill to follow his prophetic witness of nonviolence and fraternity.

He said the prominent activist should be remebered not only for the justice he pursued, but for “how he pursued it.”

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Inside Church Media Room

Media accreditation to WCC Central Committee meeting online press room

The upcoming Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9 – 15 February will be the fifth meeting of this central committee since it was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013.

The central committee meets normally every two years and serves as the chief governing body of the WCC between assemblies, but due to the pandemic the central committee has met online in June 2021. It is responsible for implementing the policies adopted by the assembly, reviewing and supervising WCC programmes and the budget of the council. The current central committee’s mandate terminates at the 11th WCC Assembly, which takes place 31 August – 8 September 2022 in Karlsruhe, Germany.  

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Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC

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In The News Inside Church

Pope: Search for Christian unity must be a journey together

Pope Francis began his address to the Ecumenical Delegation from Finland with a reflection on the Magi, the Wise Men of the Gospel who found the Child Jesus and worshipped Him.

“The Magi reached the goal because they sought it,” the Pope said. “Yet they sought it because the Lord, by the sign of the star, had first set out in search of them.” Like the Magi, we too are sought by God, “and our response must surely be like that of the Magi: a journey together.”

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Inside Church Media Room Worldwide

WCC mourns loss of Dr John Taylor, an interreligious bridge builder

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is mourning the death of Dr John Taylor, who with an initial job title of WCC programme secretary for Christian Muslim relations, later became head of the WCC interreligious office from 1980-83.

He also served as a consultant for the WCC for more than a decade.

He then went on to be secretary general of Religions for Peace and, in the 1990s, was involved in peacekeeping initiatives in the Balkans with his work for the Conference of European Churches.

He also attended and helped support the 9th WCC Assembly in Porto Alegre in 2006.

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Dr John Taylor with Stanley Samartha at a meeting with a muslim delegation from Saudi Arabia, Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, 31 October 1974, Photo: Wendy Goldsworthy / WCC Archive

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Inside Church Worldwide

WCC extends prayers for Tonga in wake of volcanic eruption

Up to 80,000 people could be affected, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Tsunami waves following the eruption also wreaked significant damage.

“Amid the chaos and the uncertainty, we pray for you and we stand in solidarity with you amid a terrifying disaster,” said Sauca. “We pray for God’s mercy on you and on the rescue workers and first responders at the scene. We pray that God might guide the churches responding to the needs of the people as those needs change in the coming days.

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https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-extends-prayers-for-tonga-in-wake-of-volcanic-eruption

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In The News Inside Church Worldwide

Fire destroys refugee camp on Church grounds in Alindao

“The fire broke out after a child tried to cook with palm oil,” said Philomene Dounda, the prefect of the Lower Kotto region where the camp is located.

Anita Cadonau, a communications officer with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP that the blaze happened on Tuesday at a camp in Alindao, 500 Kilometers east of the capital Bangui.,

About 5 000 people are now in urgent need of shelter, household necessities, food and water.

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Inside Church Worldwide

Rev. Dr Susan Durber: “We belong to one, highly interconnected, world”

As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity fast approaches, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission Rev. Dr Susan Durber reflects on the theme “We saw the star in the East,” and on what unity means for the world today.

Rev. Dr Durber: Sometimes I hear Christianity described as a ‘Western religion’, but my experience of the world church has taught me that it is not. Missionaries in the early Church first went East and some of the earliest churches are very far from the Western world. And in the heart of the infancy stories we have this tale of those who saw the star ‘in the East’ and came to worship the Christ child. I have been formed in a culture that has tended to exoticise ’the East’, in what the Palestinian philosopher Edward Said famously called ‘orientalism’. 

This story and theme reminds me that ’the East’ is more than a source of spices and colours for my Western life, but denotes a wealth of culture and wisdom which is offering gifts to us all.

Photo: Albin HIllert/WCC

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Inside Church Worldwide

Pope Francis: ‘Economy must serve people and planet, not profits’

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development hosted an online conference on Wednesday, in conjunction with the Vatican Covid-19 Commission and Deloitte, a multinational professional services network.

Entitled “Preparing the Future: Building a sustainable, inclusive, regenerative economy”, the event brought together leaders in the areas of business, finance, development economics, and academia.

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Inside Church Worldwide

Norwegian Church Aid, WCC focus on role of church leaders amid world’s challenges

WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca met with the following leaders from Norwegian Church Aid: general secretary Dagfinn Høybråten, international director Arne Næss-Holm, and program coordinator for Global Programs Anne-Grete Larsen.

Sauca was accompanied in the meeting by WCC director of Communication Marianne Ejdersten, responsible contact person for the Nordic  churches in the WCC; and Rev. Nathan Day Wilson, WCC manager of Income Monitoring and Development, Planning, Evaluation and Reporting.

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Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF

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In The News Inside Church

The world’s religions face a post-pandemic reckoning

According to The Economist, A poll of practising Christians in America in 2020 found that 14% had switched churches, 18% were attending more than one church, 35% were attending only their pre-pandemic church and 32% had stopped going to church altogether.

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