WCC Pilgrimage Blog

Faith on public trial

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Last weekend, as I watched the terrible scenes from Charlottesville, Va., my heart was deeply troubled, often full of anger, and distraught at what I was seeing. Sunday morning our choir performed Brandon Boyd’s arrangement of “Jacob’s Ladder.” We were privileged to have Brandon Boyd, a young, gifted African-American composer, with us accompanying the choir. His version includes a moving solo with the words, “Is there anybody here who loves my Jesus?” I reflected that those words are what many African Americans were asking in Charlottesville—words their ancestors had sung since they arrived in slave ships.

Tags: PilgrimsOnTheMove, Racism, JusticeAndPeace, PilgrInspire, FellowPilgrims, Human dignity, just community of women and men

A church that cares for its youth in the midst of HIV and AIDS

Luciano Chianeque

The old chapel of the United Evangelical Church "Anglican Community in Angola" in the neighborhood of Golf 1 in Luanda turned out to be quite small for the large number of students from the church's district school. 200 of them had come to attend a workshop on "HIV and AIDS amongst Adolescents and Youth: The Church´s Responsibility" on 2 August, organized by the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (WCC-EHAIA) team.

Tags: Health and healing, PilgrimFocus, Youth, Children's rights, just community of women and men, Economy of life for all

Moments of rest on the pilgrimage

Pavol Bargar

When recalling the 2013 WCC General Assembly in Busan, South Korea, one of the things than often comes to my mind is Madang. In Korean culture, the Madang is a space in the traditional Korean household, where the members of a larger family meet not only to discuss serious issues, but also to spend time together, to rest, to laugh, and simply to enjoy each other’s company.

Tags: WhatIsAPilgrimage, Youth, PilgrInspire, transformed, WhereWillYouGo, FellowPilgrims

The five stages of grief in Palestine and Israel

Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli

When it comes to the stance of churches towards the so-called conflict between Israel and Palestine, it is useful to understand it as a process of grief. The theory of the five stages of grief from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is a creative way to describe the “dying” and “mourning” process of the churches and international community. The creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was seen by the Western world as a sign of justice for the suffering Jewish people after the Holocaust and centuries of persecution of Jews in Europe. Two elements played a major role in this initial excitement: the historical guilt of Europeans and the fulfilment of biblical prophecies related with the reestablishment of Israel.

Prayer and politics for global justice – the Church and G20

Lucy Larbi

With the slogan "global.gerecht.gestalten" (shaping globalization fairly), a Church Alliance for the G20 Summit has been established in order to actively partake in the preparation of the G20 summit. We are committed to participate in peaceful activities before and during the summit in Northern Germany.

Tags: PilgrimsOnTheMove, FellowPilgrims, Economy of life for all

Celebrating Sea Sunday - justice and peace for seafarers

Ijeoma Ajibade

Sea Sunday is celebrated by churches all over the world. Many churches will celebrate it on the 9th of July but many more will celebrate it at different times during the year. Sea Sunday is the one day of the year when churches honour and pray for seafarers. It is a day of celebration and praise but also a day to reflect and be grateful for the work seafarers do.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace

GETI 2018 is coming to the African continent

Juliet Eneh

The Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) coming to Africa in 2018 is timely and a blessing to the continent. Christian religion is booming like never before in Africa and it is a time for different denominations to see themselves as one.

Tags: Christian Unity, FellowPilgrims, WhereWillYouGo

Theological reflections on the way of just peace

Sara Gehlin

What are the prospects for theology in peacebuilding? A couple of years ago this question became the springboard for my research on a textual process that was carried out by the World Council of Churches. The process towards an international ecumenical declaration on just peace resulted in An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace and the study document Just Peace Companion being published in 2011. Eventually, it formed part of the groundwork of the current Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. My research on this process drew my attention to a couple of themes that inspire theological conversation around the very idea of a pilgrimage: the way, the movement, the process, and the fellow traveller.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, WhatIsAPilgrimage, JusticeAndPeace, transformed, FellowPilgrims

Faith responses to energy challenges

Erin Lothes

Summertime in the glorious outdoors… Are we ready to rest, confident we have been caring for the garden? A summer reading recommendation of faith-based analyses and hopeful witness.

Tags: climate change, JusticeAndPeace, Economy of life for all, Inter-religious

Prophetic voices and the AIDS epidemic

David Barstow

Now, perhaps more than at any time in the history of the AIDS epidemic, the world needs strong prophetic voices from Christians as well as from people of other faiths. HIV and AIDS have faded from public consciousness. For a variety of reasons, most people don’t think about AIDS much anymore. Perhaps they think the war is already over, that the scientific and medical advances of the last few decades have solved the problem. Perhaps they think that the epidemic only affects other people, people we don’t need to care about. Perhaps it’s just fatigue, with other issues pushing AIDS aside. Whatever the cause, the lack of attention and awareness may lead us to make some serious mistakes with some even more serious consequences.

Tags: Health and healing, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace

The pain and the glory.

Clare Amos

The days after the Ascension are a time of waiting and expectation, a time like the earliest disciples in Jerusalem in which to reflect on the meaning both of Jesus’ life and its significance for ourselves: indeed a season of both pain and glory. That is certainly the experience these days of our brothers and sisters in those lands where Christianity first began.

Tags: PilgrimsOnTheMove, Solidarity with churches in the Middle East, Refugees and migration, JusticeAndPeace

Echoes from Namibia: an ecumenical spring

Marcelo Schneider

I was sitting in the space reserved for media, in the back of the plenary hall, when Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, of the Roman Catholic Church, brought greetings from Pope Francis to the 12th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Windhoek, Namibia.

Tags: Christian Unity

My heart is crying – but Pope Tawadros said, “love never ends”

Marianne Ejdersten

Time for reflection after my visit to Egypt. The story has etched itself into my memory. I can’t leave it behind. It comes to me every day like a constant reminder of the fragility of life, of our mortality, of the courage and faith of our fellow humans that carries us in our darkest and most despondent hours.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, Solidarity with churches in the Middle East, spiritual life, JusticeAndPeace

Christian relations with the Al-Azhar University in Cairo

Benjamin Simon

Last year in September 2016 the Grand Imam from Al-Azhar University in Cairo visited the WCC in Geneva and the Bossey Ecumenical Institute. This time it has been the turn of the WCC to visit the Al-Azhar University with the Grand Imam and the Muslim Council of Elders.

Tags: PilgrimFocus, Inter-religious, PilgrimsOnTheMove, inter-religious, PilgrInspire, JusticeAndPeace, Solidarity with churches in the Middle East

The Reformation and us

Nikos Kosmidis

It has often been questioned whether it is possible for Christians of different traditions to jointly commemorate historical events that have marked and traumatized the collective memory of Christianity over the centuries. The Reformation is certainly one of those events that not only changed the course of world Christianity in a dramatic way but that also ceaselessly redefines the basic concepts of Christian theology and life in ways that affect even those who do not embrace its positions.

Tags: Christian Unity, FellowPilgrims

When farmers go hungry

Kristine Greenaway

During the night of 3-4 October 2016, Hurricane Matthew tore through the southwest region of Haiti. Powerful winds and torrential rains washed away fields, livestock, and houses. The only bridge linking the region to the rest of the country was destroyed. Suddenly farmers who had been exporting agricultural produce could no longer feed their families.

Tags: Food, FellowPilgrims, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace

Domestic helpers and stories of war

Esther R. Suter

More than thirty local women as well as women from other Muslim-majority countries, including some from other faith communities, gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in early February. The interfaith seminar offered two public sessions, discussing the “Plight of Domestic Helpers: Interfaith Perspectives” and “Conflict and War: Direct Accounts.”

Tags: FellowPilgrims, just community of women and men, Inter-religious

Connected, yet disconnected: Famine in the midst of plenty

Manoj Kurian

Never has humanity lived in a more connected, yet disconnected time! Connected by the endless notifications on our smartphones – alerting us to all the latest news and tidings in our social media, yet not connected deeply enough to respond substantially to people's suffering. Among the many tragedies are the human-made famines in South Sudan, Somalia, North-Eastern Nigeria and in Yemen.

Tags: Food, PilgrimFocus, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace

Rambling thoughts about a journey of justice and peace

Stan Noffsinger

This afternoon is a down time. I'm sitting in the Nigerian sunshine at EYN Guest House in Abuja. It is nice to feel the warmth of the sun. But moments ago, the tranquility was interrupted by a youth group singing below my balcony.

On the inaugural address of one of the greatest world leaders in human history

Clare Amos

“See I set before you today two ways in which you can walk, the way of life or the way of death, the way of blessing or the way of curse.” During the last few weeks I have listened to, and then re-read several times, the inaugural address given by one of the greatest world leaders in human history. I am referring of course to the Sermon on the Mount.

Tags: human rights, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace, transformed, FellowPilgrims, Human dignity, WhereWillYouGo