News and stories

The need for churches to confess their collective failure in addressing the Rwandan genocide when it erupted ten years ago is part of the message that the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, is bringing to Rwanda today.

Originally expected to be part of the WCC delegation currently visiting Kenya and Rwanda, His Holiness Aram I, catholicos of Cilicia and moderator of the WCC central committee, was finally unable to join the delegation. In the following interview by the WCC Public Information Team, he addresses issues like the role and future of Africa, conditions for healing and reconciliation, and the relations between religion and violence.

In a world that seems to have become a prisoner of fear, the message of Easter is highly relevant today according to Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. On the first leg (8-15 April) of his first visit to Africa as WCC general secretary, Kobia was speaking on Easter Sunday at the Lavington United Church in Nairobi, Kenya. The second leg of the WCC visit will take Kobia to Rwanda (16-18 April).

The Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia took up the position of general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the beginning of 2004. On the occasion of completing his first 100 days in office he gave the following interview to the WCC Public Information Team. In it Kobia speaks about his daily work and his first actions as general secretary, the challenges faced by the ecumenical movement at the beginning of the 21st century, the role and...

“Women are either victims of civil strife or beneficiaries of humanitarian efforts, but they are not full partners or equal participants” in the peace process, proclaims Sarah Shteir of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Shteir was one of several panelists at an ecumenical women’s gathering convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and a national women’s peace...

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation will meet ministers and official government representatives of three non-nuclear NATO states this week. The purpose of the meetings is to ask these states to take a more pro-active role within the organization to fulfill nuclear disarmament obligations undertaken in the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Churches and religious communities "must reject any attempt, from any quarter, to use religion as a motivating factor for conflict," and should "raise their voice" to confront the "new wave of violent intolerance and extremism" in Kosovo, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) say in a joint letter

Six new articles now available, offering first-hand testimonies of the recent day of demonstrations throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem. The protests coincided with the opening of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the legality of Israel's "separation fence."

Key initiatives on inter-religious dialogue and HIV/AIDS, plans for the WCC's ninth assembly, and statements on critical international situations were some of the main areas of discussion at the WCC executive committee meeting which ended in Geneva on 20 February 2004. A special ceremony and prayer service marked the formal installation of the new WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, earlier in the week.

Cf. WCC Press Feature, Feat-04-03, of 21 January 2004

Cf. WCC Press Update, Up-04-04, of 21 January 2004

WSF seminar asks for just, sustainable and caring trade

Women's roles in a globalized world, the subject of a seminar at the Mumbai World Social Forum, drew a sizeable crowd, mainly women. The 20 January seminar was organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) with the World Young Women's Christian Association and Church World Service....