The World Council of Churches (WCC) mourns the death of Leopoldo J. Niilus, former director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), renowned lawyer, peace negotiator and author of several writings on human rights and international affairs. Niilus passed away on 9 February in Geneva, Switzerland. In an official tribute from the WCC, issued on 10 February, Niilus was remembered as “mentor to a generation of ecumenical practitioners of international affairs”. Born in Estonia, and educated in Argentina and the United States where he studied law at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Niilus joined the CCIA in the 1960s. “Under his leadership the CCIA became ever more directly engaged in ecumenical advocacy in support of “Third World” churches in the fields of human rights; militarism, peace and disarmament; and conflict resolution,” said Rev. Dr Hielke Wolters, WCC’s acting general secretary, in the … [Read more...]

The recent killing of a Christian couple by an angry mob in Pakistan has prompted condemnation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.  The victims, Shama Bibi and Shehzad Masih, had been accused by community members of desecrating the Qur’an. They lost their lives in the incident on 4 November in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab province. “The protection and security of all citizens regardless of their religious affiliation is a core responsibility of the government of Pakistan, as is putting an end to human rights violations and extra-judicial killings,” said the WCC general secretary. “To promote tolerance, religious harmony and protection of rights of Christians as well as other religious minorities in Pakistan, it is important to ensure justice,” Tveit said. “This incident appears to be yet another tragic example of how the social environment created by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws allows personal disputes and vendettas … [Read more...]

GENEVA (World Council of Churches) To respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which has taken more than 3,000 lives, the World Council of Churches (WCC) brought to the table representatives of Christian aid organizations and United Nations agencies to learn from each other and to escalate their efforts. The WCC consultation, held here Sept. 29, affirmed a greater role for the churches and faith-based organizations in helping to stop the epidemic. The Ebola crisis in West Africa is the largest of its kind since the 1976 outbreak. More than 6,200 people have been infected with the virus in severely affected countries such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to World Health Organization (WHO) reports. It estimates that numbers of infected persons could top 1 million by January 2015. A recent U.N. meeting in New York has strongly urged stepped-up efforts to stop Ebola, naming it a “public health crisis” and a “threat to peace and security.” Dr Pierre Formenty, an … [Read more...]

NEW YORK (WCC) Scattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored. Adding insult to injury, when many national and local churches attempt to speak out about the denial of rights of Indigenous Peoples they are told by governments that the church has no place in politics, effectively being seen but not heard. Yet a new “outcome document” of the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is about to turn that perspective on its head. The world’s governments are now inviting churches and other civil society groups to be seen and heard when it comes to advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ human rights. For ecumenical representatives of indigenous faith communities who attended the U.N. conference, held in New York on Sept. 22 and 23, and other side events, the six-page outcome document is significantly lends motivation and teeth to a movement that has sought to … [Read more...]

DOHUK, IRAQ (World Council of Churches) Displaced by the armed offensive of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and their brutal purge of Yazidis and Christians, along with Sufi, Shiite and Sunni Muslims, from northern Iraq, members of these communities have begun to speak out about their experiences, their longing for security, and their hopes for the future. The particularly extremist interpretation of Islam that ISIS proclaims poses an existential threat to those with different beliefs. Widespread destruction of shrines, mosques, churches, monasteries and cemeteries is reported as ISIS embarks on a form of regional religious purification that shuns coexistence with people of other faiths. A briefing by Amnesty International, Ethnic cleansing on historic scale: the Islamic State’s systematic targeting of minorities in northern Iraq, calls the ISIS offensive a genocide, citing several examples of mass killings along with a wave of abductions. "The massacres … [Read more...]

GENEVA - At the Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC), leadership of the Council’s consultative bodies was announced. These bodies will steer through the work of the WCC in accomplishing the call from its 10th Assembly to engage in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace.” The WCC assembly was held in Busan, Republic of Korea, in the fall of 2013. The Rev. Susan Durber from the United Reformed Church in United Kingdom is among the leaders of the WCC’s consultative bodies. She will serve as moderator of the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order. The Rev. Mvume Dandala of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa will serve as moderator of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, while Rudolf Eduard von Sinner of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) will lead the Commission on Ecumenical Formation as its moderator. The WCC’s Echos Commission -- on youth in the ecumenical movement -- will be moderated by … [Read more...]