Past events

- Ecumenical participants from across the nation

- Almost 900 participants gathered in 2005

The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches will meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 14 - 23 February 2006, addressing the theme "God, in your grace, transform the world". The assembly will be a time of encounter, prayer, celebration and deliberation for thousands of Christian women and men from around the world. The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of over 340 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and united and other churches in over 100 countries representing more than 550 million Christians.

Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former executive director of the US office of the World Council of Churches, and Bishop Thomas Hoyt Jr., president of the US National Council of Churches, both discovered ecumenism - the movement to reconcile Christian churches - during the Civil Rights era.

World-renowned theologians to converge in Boston in the fall of 2005 for an International Conference on Violence and Christian Spirituality.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia and Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, will be visiting the United States in late October. In conjunction with the Moderator’s visit, a special symposium has been organized on 22 October 2005 at The Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive in New York under the theme, “Challenges Facing the Ecumenical Movement in the 21st Century. The seminar, which features the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia as the keynote speaker, will be jointly sponsored by the Armenian Apostolic Church of America (See of Cilicia), the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and the World Council of Churches.

“God, in your grace, transform the world”

US Conference for the World Council of Churches

“Shift your space — transform the world: young adults connecting ecumenically for peace and justice,” October 8-10, 2005 in Chicago, IL, is an event for young adult leaders in peace and justice work that will provide opportunities to draw on the strength of the unity of the church by building ecumenical connections. Seminarians, students and youth delegates to the WCC’s 9th Assembly will find links between their peace and justice work and the World Council of Churches, and engage with the vision for peace promoted by the initiative, Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation & Peace 2001-2010 (DOV).

The Trip of Transformation is a young adult outreach program of the World Council of Churches that enables a team to travel annually to colleges and seminaries affiliated with member churches to build relationships and strengthen ties with young adults as well as to introduce students and faculty to the ecumenical movement and the global partnerships of the WCC. The goal of this initiative is to introduce college students and seminarians to the exciting work of the WCC and encourage them to see ways in which they can interact with the wider ecumenical family to make a difference in the world.

"It was such a wonderful experience to feel as one community journeying together in the ecumenical boat. I came. You came as well. Suddenly we realized that ecumenism is me and you, as miracle children of God."

Renemsongla Ozukum (WCC scholar, Nagaland- India).