News

With a call "to pray, support and participate" in the forthcoming World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre next February, representatives from churches and ecumenical bodies in the region concluded a preparatory event that took place in Mendes, Brazil from October 16-18.

The bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia, Carlos Poma, called on churches to be in solidarity with the Bolivian social movement.

It is time to break down the prejudices and traditional barriers between "Evangelical" Pentecostals and "ecumenical" Protestants, according to a panel discussion at a preparatory event for the World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly.

Seminarians, students and youth delegates have expressed their determination to carry forward the ecumenical vision in the US, and have challenged church leaders to take their contribution seriously.

Churches must take responsibility to nurture healing in broken societies and to promote peace, urged leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in public statements on Haiti and small arms released today.

Next February, twenty-six young leaders from the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) will come together in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to offer their experiences and challenges to the wider ecumenical movement.

No more violence! Portuguese-speaking women are hoping that this cry will be heard at the World Council of Churches' (WCC) next Assembly. "Violence is sin, and God calls us to salvation," they say.

In 2005, for the second year running, churches representing over 560 million Christians world-wide are being invited to mark the UN International Day of Peace, 21 September, as an International Day of Prayer for Peace.

Grace and peace to you on this Feast of Pentecost 2005, in which we celebrate the many gifts of God?s Spirit!

Church representatives have outlined an extensive reshaping and streamlining of the activity of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to better equip the global Christian body for a "fast-changing" world context and new patterns of church life.