News about the WCC US office

Caroline Hennessy has joined the World Council of Churches as Director of Development. Hennessy, a Roman Catholic, assumed her new position on July 1, 2005.

More than 50 young adults from across the country have been mobilized through the Young Adult Ecumenical Forum (YAEF) on Globalization, held at Eden Seminary in St. Louis, August 11-14.

It is always a joy to have the opportunity to meet with people and to share common concerns, to learn about each other’s lives, to be in community together! In our busy lives, it’s not always easy to find the time to do this, and yet amidst reports to write, essays that needed to be finished, and so forth, a group of WCC scholars based in the United States, gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, 8-10 April 2005, to attend their annual gathering....

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed today the compassion and solidarity of the member churches of the World Council of Churches with all the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which US officials fear has claimed thousands of lives in recent days.

"By emphasizing fundamental ethics and humanity, by giving voice to the voiceless, by focusing on inclusiveness and a deeper sense of hope, by highlighting the importance of the meeting of cultures, by being ecumenical, religion will make a much-needed and constructive contribution to our societies," said WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) director Peter Weiderud during one of the Week's final sessions.

"Reform means different things to different actors," said Andreas Zumach, Geneva-based international correspondent of the Berlin daily Tageszeitung who has become known as an expert on international institutions, at a fourth public seminar held in the framework of a 14-19 November World Council of Churches (WCC) international advocacy week at the UN in New York.

Through combined spiritual accompaniment and active advocacy approaches, the ecumenical movement is making a vital contribution to the work for peace in crisis regions around the world. A case in point - Sudan - was the main focus of the third public seminar at a 14-19 November World Council of Churches (WCC) international affairs and advocacy week at the UN in New York.

After 1989, there was hope that the end of the Cold War would put a stop to the use of nuclear power as a guarantee of "global security". Since then however, not only have the superpowers retained nuclear weapons, but additional states have developed nuclear capability, and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) seems to be in serious crisis. In May 2005, this treaty will be reviewed in conference at the United Nations in New...

From Sweden to Kenya, churches should take responsibility for mobilizing locally and advocating for economic justice at their national government level. This was one of the main messages from a public seminar on ?The role of the churches in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals? taking place in New York City during a World Council of Churches (WCC) International Affairs and Advocacy Week at the United Nations.

UN reform, economic justice, the crisis in Sudan and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will be the focus of this year?s World Council of Churches' (WCC) UN Advocacy Week, scheduled to take place from 14-19 November in New York City at the "Church Center" at the UN and the WCC's UN liaison office, with some seminars taking place in the United Nations building itself.