Category: Worldwide

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

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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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

In a telegram addressed to Alessandra Vittorini, wife of David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, who died in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a serious illness, Pope Francis said he remembers him as a man of faith “animated by hope and charity.”

The message, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on the Pope’s behalf, expressed the Holy Father’s spiritual closeness at this time of sorrow, and assured Sassoli’s wife and two children of his heartfelt participation in the mourning that has struck Italy and the European Union.

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According to the World Council of Churches, Douala hosts more than 400,000 of the more than one million internally displaced persons who have fled in recent years to escape violence.

The project will identify migrant citizen journalists from communities in Douala to create inclusive and sustainable media content and gather community feedback on migration.

The radio programs will also help provide internally displaced persons with the information they need to access aid, improve their living standards, and exercise their communication rights and human rights.

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Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF, 2019

While Nelson Mandela, the “beloved Madiba,” was the father of South African democracy, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was the “spiritual father” of “our new nation,” the president of South Africa said in the main eulogy at a State funeral for the Nobel Peace laureate.

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Photo: WCC

South African Council of Churches (SACC) general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana called on his country to work harder towards the diverse and unified “rainbow nation” the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu toiled for in his 90 years.

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Photo: WCC