Past events

This is an invitation to join thousands in a "Christian Peace Witness for Iraq." As followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, our faith compels us to make our voice heard-to repent of our complicity with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and to renew our commitment to peacemaking.

This will be the fifth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference, held in Washington DC, March 9-12, 2007. The theme, "and How are the Children?" will guide and inspire this gathering of over 1,000 religious advocates. Experts will train participants on advocacy and policy issues, and on Monday, the conference will conclude with lobby visits on Capitol Hill.

With support from True Majority, Working Assets, the RainbowPUSH Coalition, the National Organization for Women and hundreds of other national and local groups, word about the Jan. 27th antiwar mobilization is reaching far and wide. Momentum is building and people from all walks of life and every corner of the country will be marching on Washington, DC, on Saturday, Jan. 27th.

Thousands of Christians from many nations gathered together in Brazil for 10 days in February at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. They prayed, discussed, reflected and planned, inspired by the Assembly theme - "God, in your grace, transform the world."

The Assembly, the governing body of the WCC, represents the 348 member churches. Using the consensus process, the Assembly addressed faith and order, religious plurality and inter-faith dialogue, overcoming violence, indigenous rights, the environment, economic justice and much more. The Assembly elected a new 150-member Central Committee to lead the WCC into the next decade and appointed presidents for each region and for...

This April nine WCC scholars currently studying in the United States came together for a time of sharing, fellowship and reflection. The gathering was the third annual World Council of Churches scholars gathering, hosted this year by Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, KY. This is a time for the scholars to fellowship together, reflect on their time in the United States, and consider how to carry on their ecumenical work when they return to their home countries and churches.

- 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).