News about the WCC US office

Among the 22 people attending Ecumenical Water Network Summer School from 18 countries were Kelly Forbush (United Church of Christ), Walter Hildago and Kimberlee Mortimer from the United States. In addition, Young Adult Ecumenical Formation Coordinator David Fraccaro from the US Conference Office assisted Geneva staff from the Ecumencial Water Network in the planning and moderation of the event. David's work particularly focused on...

According to the United Nations, over 12 million women and children are forced into sex trafficking.  The Polaris Project reports that in the United States an estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into sexual exploitation each year.  Labor trafficking is also a widespread problem.  The International Labour Organization estimates that there are at least 12.3 million victims of forced labor.  Of those, at least 2.4 million were...

When a World Council of Churches-sponsored "Living Letters" delegation seeking to learn more about the influence and extent of violence in U.S. society visited several cities last fall, its members expressed shock at the continuing devastation still evident in New Orleans three years after Katrina, and its lingering impact on families uprooted by the hurricane.

The December 2007 young adult ecumenical leaders gathering looked to bring together 15 young adult leaders from at least a dozen U.S. Conference member churches, representing several young adult ecumenical initiatives. It was the hope of the that these concerns would be addressed through: building stronger relationships amongst those represented, creating a greater awareness of young adult ecumenical initiatives throughout the U.S. and beyond,...

Staff at the US Conference for the WCC recently received a visit from Rev. Doris Go-Baluyos who, in 1988, arrived in the United States from the Phillipines as a World Council of Churches scholar. This was her first return visit to the United States since completing her scholarship studies.

Churches and society at large need to offer reparation to descendants of those enslaved, tortured and murdered by the transatlantic slave trade, says an international conference sponsored by three major ecumenical organizations.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, an initiative of the World Council of Churches, has launched a new Website for its US program.

Can churches be peacemakers in a world racked by violence? This is the question to be addressed by World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC, on Sunday, 16 December 2007.

The Living Letters team visit to the US, as part of the Decade to  Overcome Violence and its journey leading up to the International  Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC), found peace and non-violence the main foci of the visit. While the opportunities for learning were many fold, exciting and challenging, the hosts of the visit were thrilled to have guests from all over the world - guests interested in what is happening on the ground in regard...

The legacies of the slave trade, and how churches can respond to past and present forms of slavery, are going to be discussed at an ecumenical conference to be held 10-14 December in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. About sixty theologians, church leaders, social scientists and activists, mainly from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean will gather in the country where nearly one million Africans and later indentured servants from Asia were exploited as...