WCC Pilgrimage Blog

VAMP for a day – or my media pilgrimage with Pope Francis to Geneva

Stephen Brown

When Pope Francis landed in Geneva slightly after 10am local time on 21 June for his visit to the World Council of Churches in an Alitalia plane with a discreet papal coat of arms, he was accompanied by a 60-strong contingent of journalists collectively known as the “VAMP,” for Vatican Accredited Media Personnel.

Tags: communication, FellowPilgrims, transformed, WhereWillYouGo

Matilde gives drawing to Pope Francis, surrounding him with love

Albin Hillert

As Pope Francis visited the World Council of Churches in Geneva on 21 June, five-year-old Matilde Colombo gave him a drawing with a message of love.

Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr: drawing closer to God through prayer and praise

Fatimah Ashrif

For many Muslims the focus this month has really been praise: prayer, recitation of sacred texts, meditation and contemplation. Anything which nourishes my connection with the Divine.

Tags: inter-religious

“Era of Peace” coming to Korea

Patti Talbot

Off-again/on-again Trump-Kim summit cannot derail the peace train!

Tags: Nuclear arms control, JusticeAndPeace

Time for religious leaders to speak out - No child should die of TB

Stuart Kean

Statistics about TB in children make shocking reading, especially because TB is preventable and curable. Religious leaders and faith communities have an opportunity to speak out and demand action is taken by their governments and by the international community.

Tags: human rights, Inter-religious, PilgrimsOnTheMove, JusticeAndPeace, Youth, PilgrInspire, transformed, Children's rights, Human dignity

South Sudan: the wounds

Maureen Jack

As the World Council of Churches pilgrim visit of justice and peace to South Sudan draws to a close, I’m struck by how several issues intersect and interact: the position of women, poverty, sexual exploitation, the prevalence of weapons, and the lack of safety.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, just community of women and men, JusticeAndPeace

The flame may be weakened, but it will not be erased

Rolf Schünemann

On 1 May, the old police headquarters of the Federal Police in São Paulo, Brazil, burned down and collapsed. Rev. Rolf Schünemann reflects that the building, in fact, not only an historic site but a living ecumenical presence that touched the lives of thousands of people over more than 100 years.

Tags: human rights, FellowPilgrims, JusticeAndPeace

Wadi Qana and the politics of nature

Ecumenical Accompanier

Although the Israeli authorities declared Wadi Qana as a nature reserve as far back as 1983, the decision to turn it into an Israeli leisure and recreation area was only taken in 2006. This did not fail to impact Palestinian landowners. who are not allowed to dig new wells to water the fields or to repair existing facilities, whereas the Israeli settlements on the hilltops get their water from deep wells on the valley floor, with water pumped uphill through thick pipes.

Tags: EAPPI

Wadi Qana: Occupation's impact on a peaceful land

Ecumenical Accompanier

Although idyllic Wadi Qana is barely 50 km from the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv as the crow flies, the gap is great. Rizeq, our local contact in the nearby village of Deir Istiya, leases grazing land there. Together with three friends, he owns a small herd of goats. The herd sleeps in a large cave that serves as a shed, with an entrance enclosed by walls and gates. Rizeq and his partners built a small hut nearby out of field stones for storing tools and spending the night.

Tags: human rights

The Resistance of Biblical women and the leadership of Mrs. Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela

Angelique Walker-Smith

When I was a young adult I visited the home of Mrs. Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela. I was blessed to meet her and a few of her family members. I also heard her speak at a program in Soweto. Since this time, I have come to a deeper understanding about her and the spouses of celebrated leaders. Too often their leadership is not only overlooked but not considered.

Tags: Economy of life for all, Racism, JusticeAndPeace, just community of women and men, Human dignity

April 4, 2018 - 50 years after the assassination of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr

Olav Fykse Tveit

One of the most well known and remarkable personalities in the history of the ecumenical movement is Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. His name is forever carved into world history and into the history of the churches’ witness in the world. Today, 50 years after his assassination, he is honoured, and he is inspiring the churches worldwide to continue the work he was leading. His message should be both guiding us and disturbing us.

Tags: human rights, Christian Unity, PilgrimsOnTheMove, Racism, JusticeAndPeace, FellowPilgrims, Human dignity, just community of women and men

Different but one in Christ

Gladwell Wambui Rurinja

From the face value, the above African proverb “A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn,” means that it actually takes a collection of sticks to have a burning fire since a single stick can only produce a thread of wispy smoke. The same is actually true with regards to our life. It is common to hear statements like ‘let us keep the fire burning’ when initiatives are started, but, most times it is just that, statements because individualism often supersedes collectivism. Little is done to fan the fire and add wood to it to ensure that it actually keeps burning.

Tags: Christian Unity, communication, Youth, PilgrInspire, transformed, PilgrimsOnTheMove, FellowPilgrims

Social media – sharing the Word, with the World Council of Churches

John Njenga

Although continents may remain apart “technology has made the world a global village.” In the real sense of the word, it’s the interconnection of technology that makes it a village. The World Council of Churches is not ignorant to this fact and hence maintains a vibrant social media presence. The effectiveness of these channels has come to light at the ongoing Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Arusha, Tanzania.

Tags: Youth, communication, FellowPilgrims

Sowing Peace

Peniel Rajkumar

I recently attended the conference on ‘Interreligious dialogue for peace: Promoting Peaceful coexistence and common citizenship’ organized by KAICIID in Vienna on the 26 and 27 of February. The conference brought together some high profile religious leaders (predominantly but not exclusively from the Christian and Muslim faiths) who spoke with a united voice for social cohesion, peaceful coexistence and respect for religious diversity.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, JusticeAndPeace, Inter-religious

Is there any room for talk of transition in the Christian message?

Daniel Wiederkehr

These days everyone uses the words “change” or “transformation” yet they are used to describe very different things. The French president Emmanuel Macron speaks of the transformation of the French economy through the liberalisation of labour laws, and in his book “India Transformed” Rakesh Mohan describes the benefits achieved by 25 years of neo-liberalism. So what do church-related aid organisations like Action de Carême, Pain pour le prochain and Etre partenaires mean when they use the word “transition”? Is this concept really part of the Christian message?

Tags: PilgrimsOnTheMove, Economy of life for all, JusticeAndPeace

Worlds come together in prayer

Maria Munkholt Christensen

A thousand associations come to my mind when the theme is prayer: My Lutheran parents prayed for me and with me when I was a child, and my uncle who was a Baptist minister began dinners with long free prayers. In church and at home we sang Danish hymns with wordings such as: “All good gifts come from above” and “Now we all give thanks to God”.

Tags: Christian Unity, PilgrimsOnTheMove, PilgrInspire, Faith and Order, spiritual life, transformed, FellowPilgrims

My first Confucian-Christian dialogue

Simi Thambi

The effects of certain types of experiences do not fade with time; rather they permeate deep into your existence to further broaden your understanding about the realities of life. For me the first Christian-Confucian Dialogue initiated by the World Council of Churches at South Korea was one such experience. It will stay with me for a long time and I will time travel back and forth from it to understand the complexities of inter-religious discussions.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, WhereWillYouGo, Inter-religious

For birth or death: the destiny of Bethlehem

Clare Amos

I sometimes ask people if they know which is the first point in the Bible that Bethlehem gets a mention. And that normally offers them quite a challenge. People certainly move back from the New Testament into the Old – and come up with responses like, ‘the story of David’, or ‘the Book of Ruth’. Good thinking. But actually the first mention of Bethlehem in our Bibles (as they are now set out) occurs much earlier still.

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

Power in this Nobel Peace Prize: truth told, truth heard

Jonathan Frerichs

A Nobel Peace Prize ceremony’s greatest power may be that it enables unrealized truth to be told in a new light. The truth at issue has surely been spoken before, from shattered neighborhoods to the heights of power. Yet this Nobel award to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons enabled such truth to be spoken to an attentive mixed audience representing the street as well as the summit: Civil society campaigners, the diplomatic corps, nuclear-armed and nuclear-free; religious leaders; Norwegian society, a royal family in the front row; a worldwide audience.

Tags: Nuclear arms control, JusticeAndPeace

Prayer Service for Peace on the eve of ICAN’s Nobel Peace Prize

Jonathan Frerichs

Trinity Church in Oslo is a great round space of silence and light. It’s a place that invites those who enter to think about peace. Campaigners of different faiths and traditions, in the city to celebrate the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, quietly fill the pews. Then a grand organ sounds—this house of prayer welcomes guests with its own voice.

Tags: Nuclear arms control, PilgrInspire, transformed, spiritual life, WhereWillYouGo