WCC Pilgrimage Blog

The path of love leads to justice and peace

Matias Ikkala

A group of young Christians and Muslims met at Cairo, 18-22 August, for the seminar “Youth Engagement, Religion and Violence”. The meeting organized by the World Council of Churches and the al-Azhar University comprised of lectures, working groups, and various official meetings. As a part of the Christian delegation, I can say that we were all very impressed by the spirit of friendliness and fraternity that the al-Azhar met us with.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, Youth, Inter-religious

Re-affirm the culture of peace through dialogue

Rr. Manda Andrian

Indonesia had been chosen as the third YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) venue, as it represents a multi-cultural and multi-religious context which is also sensitive to conflict. For about 14 days there were lectures, discussions, and exposure visits to some places to get to know more about the multi-religious reality in Indonesia, issues that need to be solved and need our action rather then talk and think only.

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

Journeying together as formative factor for my YATRA experiences

Hau Sian Suan

For this historic moment of YATRA 2016, the Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity which was going to start on 28 May in Jakarta, I set off on my journey three days earlier, on May 25. Coming from a remote area in the western part of Myanmar, the journey to YATRA was a big challenge from the beginning.

Tags: Youth, FellowPilgrims, WhatIsAPilgrimage, Inter-religious

Small yet beautiful

Shan Ul Haq Joseph

I grew up in a society where faith is above everything. My country (Pakistan) had even based its campaign for independence on religious ideology, and religion has great impact on the social, cultural, political and economic values. From my childhood I have had Christian friends from different Churches and many friends from other religions. On this journey I experienced ecumenism and learned from different perspectives.

Tags: Youth, FellowPilgrims, Inter-religious

A mixture of high politics and transcendent human concerns

Jonathan Frerichs

27 May 2016 – Today a US president finally came to Hiroshima to pay respects and acknowledge what happened there in the atomic bombings of 1945. The visit was a mixture of high politics and transcendent human concerns.

More voices contributing a wider range of experiences

Helen Åkerman

At the annual conference in Uniting Church in Sweden at the beginning of May, we decided to change the procedures in the annual conferences to consensus methods, inspired by the Uniting Church in Australia and the World Council of Churches. Developing democracy is a proud legacy from our founding churches. As early as in the late 19th century, the founding churches used the principle one member, one vote. We hope that this decision is a way to live up to the legacy and to show that we still and always try to develop democracy.

Tags: PilgrimsOnTheMove, Refugees and migration, Youth, transformed, just community of women and men

Africa churches unite behind a nuclear weapons ban treaty

Rev. Kolade O. Fadahunsi

Africa space is a religious space, a combination of 54 states from North to East, West to South. Differences in culture and religious persuasion exist, but a unity of purpose is always on peace and development. What is not negotiable is the strong believe in God, the piousness of Africans. That's why we boldly and unanimously walk on the common ground to say this weapon of mass destruction remaining unbanned is totally unacceptable.

Tags: Nuclear arms control, JusticeAndPeace

On the road for life

Rose Rauther

"Unterwegs für das Leben," on the road for life, was the name chosen for an initiative started by the women's work section of the Evangelical Church in Baden in the eighties. Christian women went walking together along the Rhine from Karlsruhe to Basel, going from place to place in order to collect signatures in opposition to the upgrading of armaments and to hand these over to the disarmament conference in Geneva. The walk was combined with evening peace prayer vigils held in local churches.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, PilgrimsOnTheMove, Refugees and migration, spiritual life, FellowPilgrims, just community of women and men

A “pilgrimage” to Colombia

Jan Willem Stenvers

“Prayer is our only answer.” Salvador and Samuel are crystal clear about it. Their faith is their defense against the violent threats they are suffering from in El Garzal, Colombia. It’s a kind of answer to the cruelties of the ongoing civil war in Colombia that shows a brave and hopeful way of living in peace.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, human rights, JusticeAndPeace, WhereWillYouGo, Economy of life for all

Spirit of diversity in Indonesia

Agatha Tambunan

“Indonesia is neither a religious country (for example: Islamic country) nor a secular state. Even though Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, the law is not based on the religion. On the other side, Indonesia is not a secular state because we are upholding the value of religions and we need religious figures to be the spirit of diversity in Indonesia”, said the Indonesia Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin.

Tags: Youth, human rights, JusticeAndPeace, Inter-religious

Of unbalanced diets and lopsided systems

Manoj Kurian

One in eleven adults is diabetic. I happen to be one of those 422 million adults. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of those affected by Diabetes over the last quarter century. This increase points to a disturbing decrease in levels of physical activity of people, excessive weight gain among populations and a dramatic shift in how people access food. In the history of humanity, this reality indicates far-reaching changes in lifestyle, economics, and well-being.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, Health and healing, PilgrimFocus, Food, human rights, JusticeAndPeace, Economy of life for all

Struggle for truth, justice, peace and reconciliation

Esther R. Suter

My first contact with Dr. Vinie Burrows happened in 1983 while I worked as a volunteer pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in “Hell’s Kitchen” in New York City. At that time she, as a feminist, Human Rights and peace activist, hosted a radio program, More Than Half the World, on Pacifica station WBAI in New York.

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

Now is the time for queenly leadership!

Angelique Walker-Smith

Sometime between 486 and 465 BCE, the Bible tells us, a disagreement arose between a husband and wife on the way the wife should be presented at a banquet. The disagreement resulted in the wife losing her title of queen. The wife’s name was Queen Vashti, and her husband was King Ahasuerus of Persia. King Ahasuerus decided to find another wife. Esther, a disguised Israelite teenager, was chosen as the new queen.

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

The water we “eat”

Dinesh Suna

The Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has been observing World Water Day since its inception. It is an important occasion for all those working on water issues, including the WCC, to highlight the global water crisis. Particularly the Lenten campaign of the WCC, the “Seven Weeks for Water”, is an opportunity to galvanise its constituencies to discuss issues around water.

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

Justice and peace in Nigeria and in Sweden

Adebayo Anthony Kehinde

As a youth leader of The Church of the Lord (Prayer Fellowship) Worldwide, I am currently on a journey to Switzerland and Sweden to explore the ecumenical landscape on behalf of our church and also to learn firsthand about the work of the Church of Sweden. Journeying together can be a practical way for churches to engage in the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace which invites member churches of the World Council of Churches and all people of goodwill to speak and act together in our continued search for peace in our troubled world.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, Inter-religious, Refugees and migration, Youth, WhereWillYouGo

I’ve rediscovered pilgrimage!

Susan Durber

I grew up in the south of England. And many of the places I loved to explore had names that revealed a lost history. I went for walks along paths that were called the ‘Pilgrims Way’. Sometimes I would explore the ruins of of a long closed convent. I lived in a road called Friar’s Gate, and the local beer came from a brewery called The Friary. But there were no pilgrims walking the way anymore.

Tags: WhyPilgrimage, WhatIsAPilgrimage, JusticeAndPeace, transformed, spiritual life, WhereWillYouGo, FellowPilgrims

Faith in action: for access equity rights now

Francesca Merico

Why should people of faith get engaged in AIDS2016? - The first time I took part in the International AIDS Conference was in Mexico in 2008. I was overwhelmed and fascinated. I was impressed by the large number of people HIV could mobilize, and yet I knew many people around the world had no idea of the difference between HIV and AIDS, and even worse, many did not want to know about it.

Tags: human rights, Health and healing, JusticeAndPeace, Children's rights, just community of women and men

Porto Alegre +10: pilgrim’s memories from the 9th Assembly of the WCC

Marcelo Schneider

I was standing in the control booth at the back of the auditorium when the moderator of the WCC Central Committee declared the 9th Assembly open, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 14 February 2006. My friend Jean-Nicolas Bazin and I were surrounded by light and sound technicians and we had our eyes on the script of the opening plenary, making sure everything was flowing smoothly and according to plan.

Tags: Food, climate change, JusticeAndPeace, water, WhereWillYouGo, Economy of life for all

Troubled, but not destroyed: Pan African women in the Caribbean

Marjorie Lewis

I am Marjorie Lewis, immediate past President and the first woman to be appointed to the Presidency of the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) in Jamaica. I am currently on Sabbatical, based at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax Canada. Here I am conducting research on approaches to Ministerial Formation and Theological Education, with special focus on spiritual care within multi-faith and LGBTIQ communities.

Tags: Health and healing, just community of women and men, transformed, JusticeAndPeace

A sobering retrospective of the Canberra Assembly 25 years ago

Victor Wan Chi Hsu

The incredibly complex issues that came to the fore in the 1991 WCC Canberra Assembly continue to echo in contemporary ecumenical history. In 1991, I had been in ecumenical work already sixteen years. I began my ecumenical career being in charge of the WCC relationship with the United Nations. But nothing could have prepared me for my Canberra assignment given by General Secretary Emilio Castro on behalf of the Executive Committee: to enable the membership of the China Christian Council by resolving the condition it placed on the WCC.

Tags: FellowPilgrims, transformed, WhereWillYouGo, JusticeAndPeace