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.
A Taizé gathering for young people in Hong Kong
More than 330 young Christians from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Europe met at St Benedict Parish in Sha Tin from 30 April to 3 May for a Taizé Asian Youth Gathering, held for the eightieth anniversary of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.
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.
Bible Month 2026
Bible Society New Zealand chose “God’s Heart for the One: Leaving No One Behind” as the theme for Bible Month in July, as it began its 180th year of Bible mission in New Zealand.
Bishop Steve Lowe re-elected to lead the Catholic bishops
Meeting in Hamilton for one of their four gatherings of the year, New Zealand’s Catholic bishops elected Bishop Steve Lowe of Auckland to a second three-year term as president of the Bishops Conference.
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.
Prison and hospital chaplains gather together
Catholic chaplains who serve in prisons and hospitals spent a weekend together at St Francis’ Friary in Auckland, the first time the two groups had met in this way.
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.
Catholics and Reformed churches plan a fifth round of dialogue
Delegations of the Catholic Church and the World Communion of Reformed Churches met at the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome on 24 April to plan a fifth round of international dialogue, as the fiftieth anniversary of the first dialogue report, The Presence of Christ in Church and World, approaches.
The Archbishop of Canterbury meets Pope Leo
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on 27 April, their first meeting since her installation in March, and the two prayed together in the Urban VIII Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
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”.
Sails of Hope sets out from Fiji
The Soko ni Nuinui (Sails of Hope) programme set out from Pacific Harbour in Fiji during Eastertide aboard the traditional voyaging canoe Uto Ni Yalo, aiming to train more than 1,400 people over 50 days at eight centres around Fiji before Pentecost.
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.
The 2026 Quaker Lecture: Gumboot Anthropology
The 2026 Quaker Lecture, held during Yearly Meeting in Dunedin on 11 April, took the form of a conversation between Dame Anne Salmond, Distinguished Professor in Māori Studies and Anthropology, and the Wellington Quaker Maddy Ash, under the title “Gumboot Anthropology”.
Parishes pray for peace after Easter
Catholic parishes around New Zealand took up Pope Leo XIV’s Easter invitation to pray for peace by setting aside ten minutes after each Mass on the weekend of 11 and 12 April for a short liturgy of prayer.
Fiji’s churches celebrate Easter together
The Fiji Council of Churches held its annual Ecumenical Resurrection Sunday at the Suva Civic Centre on Easter Day, 5 April, a tradition that has brought Fiji’s churches together to celebrate the resurrection since 2017.
An Easter message from Nepal
The Lutheran World Federation’s Easter message for 2026 was written by Rev.