NEWS
News from our member churches and the wider ecumenical movement, with our monthly roundup and a library of stories from ecumenical bodies around the world.
Essays on Nicaea at 1700
The WCC has published Towards Nicaea 2025: Exploring the Council’s Ecumenical Significance Today, a collection of essays marking 1700 years since the first ecumenical council and the Nicene Creed.
Faith and Order symposium in Romania
An international symposium in Sibiu, Romania, on ecclesiology, moral discernment and the mission of the church took up the work of last year’s Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order.
Applications open to study at Bossey
The WCC’s Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, near Geneva, is taking applications for its 2027 to 2028 programmes in ecumenical studies, which it runs with the University of Geneva.
The WCC presidents’ Pentecost message
In their message for Pentecost, the presidents of the WCC called on Christians to let the Holy Spirit form new and renewed communities that show love, practise peace, care for creation and seek justice.
Australian churches pray together for unity
The National Council of Churches in Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference held an ecumenical prayer service at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in Sydney on 12 May, ahead of the Week of Prayer.
The United Bible Societies at 80
The United Bible Societies marked eighty years of work with a fellowship event in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 7 to 11 May, under the theme “A Legacy of Purpose, A Future of Possibility”.
The president of the Methodist Church of New Zealand on faith and identity
Dr Te Aroha Rountree, president of the Methodist Church of New Zealand Te Hāhi Weteriana o Aotearoa, spoke with the WCC about her whakapapa in the far north, her years teaching at Trinity Methodist Theological College, and life in a bicultural church where Māori ways of knowing shape how scripture is read.
The southern hemisphere keeps the Week of Prayer in May
Churches in the southern hemisphere, here in Aotearoa New Zealand among them, kept the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from 17 to 24 May, between Ascension and Pentecost.
Remembering Jione Havea
The World Council of Churches paid tribute to Rev.
Young Christians in Asia gather in Chiang Mai
The Asian Ecumenical Youth Assembly in Chiang Mai, Thailand, brought young people from across the region together under the call to “break every yoke” from Isaiah 58:6.
Global Christian Forum meets in Rome
The International Committee of the Global Christian Forum met in Rome from 21 to 23 April.
Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting closes
As the Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting closed in Fiji, WCC general secretary Rev.
Pacific churches launch a decade of climate justice action
During the Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting, the churches launched an Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action at Togoru, on the coast of Fiji, where the sea takes more than a metre of land each year and families are preparing to move.
Remembering Jürgen Moltmann at 100
A symposium at the Evangelical Academy in Bad Boll, Germany, from 10 to 12 April marked what would have been the 100th birthday of the theologian Jürgen Moltmann, under the theme “Hope in God: The Future of the World”.
Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting opens in Fiji
Church leaders from across the Pacific gathered in Suva from 13 to 17 April for the Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting, hosted by the Pacific Conference of Churches.
A feast of creation for the whole church
More than 600 church leaders met online in March to explore the Feast of Creation, kept on 1 September or the Sunday after, which has its roots in the Eastern Orthodox calendar.
Holy Week prayer with the Old Catholic churches
The WCC’s morning prayer on the Monday of Holy Week was prepared with the Old Catholic World Communion.
The WCC’s Easter message for 2026
The WCC’s Easter message asked how Christians can celebrate Easter honestly at a time of so much suffering in the world.
Unity at the heart of Christian witness
Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, president of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, led a morning prayer at the Ecumenical Centre on 23 March.
A new Archbishop of Canterbury
Dame Sarah Mullally, the first woman to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, was installed as the 106th archbishop at Canterbury Cathedral on 25 March.