World Council of Churches

In their annual Pentecost message, the World Council of Churches presidents, for 2025, reflect on the meaning of unity in diversity.

As the world prepares for decisive climate negotiations at COP30, faith communities in Latin America and the Caribbean have reiterated a powerful call for action during Panama's Climate Week 2025, demanding that governments move beyond promises to deliver concrete solutions for the planet's most vulnerable populations.

As climate change intensifies pressure on global water resources, threatening food security worldwide, a landmark UN expert group meeting in Rome advanced principles for responsible water tenure governance—the legal frameworks that determine who can access, use, and control water resources—that could reshape how communities manage this vital resource by 2027.

Young people who participated in the international conference “Berlin 1884–1885 and Anti-Black Racism: In Search of a Shared Anti-Racist Ecumenical Vision” shared their vision of how to decolonize churches and communities, and move toward a world with racial justice. 

During a field visit to the south Lebanon, organized by youth groups and movements from the churches of Lebanon in cooperation with brothers from the Taize community, Maria Bzdigian, project manager at the Middle East Council of Churches, found the impact of the war heartbreaking—and impossible to ignore. 

How can churches maintain their prophetic and critical voice, at the same time speaking peace and hope to people? Why is unity among Christians still relevant today, and can we still trust international law and international organizations? Bishop Jonas Jonson speaks on the relevance of the 1925 Life and Work conference in Stockholm, which resulted in establishing both the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), recently gathered for its 60th meeting in Athens, Greece.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep sorrow and solidarity with the people of Mokwa in Niger State, Nigeria, following devastating floods that claimed the lives of more than 200 people, left many others missing and presumed dead, and displaced thousands. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay strongly condemned a violent attack on a humanitarian aid convoy in North Darfur, Sudan, which took place on the night of 3 June. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, 18 – 24 June 2025, for important encounters on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity, particularly with South African churches. Media accreditation is mandatory for access to open sessions, press conferences, briefings, and seminars – onsite, as well as online.

In a message to the 27th Pentecostal World Conference, being held in Helsinki 4-7 June, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay reflected on the theme of the conference, “Go &Make,” describing it as both timely and deeply challenging. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomed an array of visitors in May, all receiving a welcome and introduction to the work of the WCC.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee will convene 18-24 June in Johannesburg, South Africa for important encounters on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity, particularly with South African churches. 

In 1925, archbishop of Sweden Nathan Söderblom, gathered more than 600 church leaders from 37 countries for a historic meeting in Stockholm. A century later, church leaders from around the globe will again convene in the Swedish capital, to commemorate the 1925 meeting and the achievements of the ecumenical movement ever since. 

Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, in a keynote speech titled “The Global Persistence of Anti-Black Racism and Role of the Church,” on 19 May, analyzed the enduring issue of anti-Black racism rooted in historical legacies of slavery and colonialism.

Gathering in Nairobi from 28-29 May, religious leaders and people living with and affected by HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria analyzed global events affecting their people. 

Dr Anna Marie Aagaard passed away at the age of 90 on 24 May. She worked for the Faculty of Theology at Aarhus University in Denmark from 1961until her retirement in 2000 as associate professor. Her interests were missiology, dogmatics, and ecumenism, and in the late 1960s she studied in Rome. and was also influenced by liberation theology and women’s studies. 

At a 20th Believers Church Conference, being held June 1-4 in Amsterdam, Rev. Merlyn Hyde Riley, vice moderator of the WCC central committee and general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, joined in commemorating 500 years of Anabaptist beginnings. 

Prof. Hulisani Ramantswana, a scholar from the University of South Africa, offered a keynote address, “Colonial Dynamics and the Impoverishment of Africa 140 Years after the Berlin Conference,” during an ecumenical gathering, “Berlin 1884–1885 and Anti-Black Racism: In Search of a Shared Anti-Racist Ecumenical Vision.”

An international conference, “Berlin 1884–1885 and Anti-Black Racism: In Search of a Shared Anti-Racist Ecumenical Vision,” acknowledged that the deep wounds of colonialism carved 140 years ago are by no means healed—but that churches can reframe relationships in a radical, de-colonial manner. 

On 1 June, at the Berner Münster in Bern, Switzerland, Ecumenical Vespers marked a celebration of joy and unity in faith organized by the Swiss National Council of Churches and the Protestant Church in Switzerland.