World Council of Churches

An ecumenical vespers service in Lund Cathedral on 31 October, Reformation Day, commemorated significant moments in the history of ecumenism—and drew a procession of people who are wrestling with the future of ecumenism as well. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) launch joint exhibition entitled ‘The Lund Thread’, highlighting 100 years of ecumenical encounter and exploration in Sweden. 

A webinar, “Visible Unity in a Changing North: Ecclesiology, Leadership, and the Future of the Churches,” held 30 October, offered a glimpse into the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order meeting, underway from 26–31 October. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) on 30 October received a delegation from the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for discussions on the contribution of churches and faith communities to public life and the shaping of a values-based international order.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) on 30 October met with Zoltán Tarr, Hungary's minister for Social Relations and Culture, to discuss the role of churches in democratic society, the renewal of the United Nations, and prospects for national dialogue in Hungary.

A Women’s Day Declaration on 26 October at the African and African Diaspora Conference, delivered in partnership with the Pan African Women’s Ecumenical Empowerment Network, recognized the conference facets of memory, resistance, faith, organizing, and collective action.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay condemned repeated killings of members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the continuing insecurity affecting Orthodox Christian communities others in the Arsi area of Ethiopia’s Oromia Regional State.

The Europe Regional Executive of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) held its annual meeting in Geneva 28-29 October, exploring issues of communication justice in the European and ecumenical contexts and planning actions for 2027 and beyond.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Officers Network gathered online 27-28 October for mutual learning and collaboration, bringing together representatives of member churches from around the world to share experiences, address common challenges, and explore priorities for the ecumenical movement.

The South Sudan Council of Churches called for urgent action to end a deadly cycle of inter-communal violence in parts of the country, as a wave of attacks left at least 72 people dead in Tonj North County of Warrap State.

A Lund University symposium reminded participants in the ongoing World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order meeting of the significance of concrete steps toward Christian unity, not least when other societal structures face pressure or risk crumbling.

In Ethiopia, much of what is left of the native highland forest stands around churches. Organizers of the new Church Forest Academy count about 35,000 church forests, from one hectare to 19,000 hectares in size. From 27 October to 3 November, faith leaders and practitioners from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria are learning how these forests survived. They are also exploring how the same care can restore tree cover in their own communities.

In a pastoral letter sent to churches and people of Indonesia affected by forest fires, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep concern, solidarity, and prayers as vast regions of Indonesia have endured months of forest and land fires.

As wildfires burn across Indonesia—including in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua, the disaster is damaging ecosystems, and causing widespread suffering as it threatens human life and the natural world.

On 25 October, churches in Armenia met the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17) with an encounter and a prayer. At the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, received the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation. In the evening, the WCC led an ecumenical prayer at St Anna Church in Yerevan.

Young Nordic theologians who are participating in the ongoing meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order voiced their reflections on what visible unity means today. 

A woman professor of theology—who has campaigned for dissociating priestly ordination from theological studies—is now the head of St Paul’s University in Limuru, near the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

A Swedish “Singstunde” offered spiritual musical encounters on the opening day of the Commission on Faith and Order meeting 2026. 

From 12-14 October, the Church of Sweden's officers responsible for interreligious dialogue, Rev. Peter Lööv Roos, Rev. Maria Kjellsdotter Rydinger, and Dr Anita Suneson, hosted Prof. Angeliki Ziaka, programme executive for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches (WCC), at the Church of Sweden's National Office in Uppsala.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay shared a tribute to Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, during a ceremony conferring the degree of doctor honoris causa upon Altmann by Faculdades EST, in São Leopoldo, Brazil on 26 October.