Member Church News: Gatherings, Departures, Agreements

National Indigenous Peoples Day is on June 21, and June is National Indigenous Peoples Month in Canada. The United Church of Canada’s moderator, Carmen Lansdowne, says, “We can all take actions to celebrate or recognize this day.”

Gondarra OAM, a giant in the life of the Uniting Church in Australia and Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and a revered Yolŋu leader, has passed away. The Uniting Church said, “We give thanks for his incredible contribution to our journey of reconciliation, his unwavering compassion for his people and his deep insights into the God who walks with us all.”

Presbyterian Church of Colombia: WCC accompaniment allows a dream for wider peace: In a video interview, Marwin Hurtado, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, reflects on what the accompaniment of the World Council of Churches means to the churches in Colombia as they support the peace process.

Delegates to the Christian Reformed Church in North America’s 2024 Synod unanimously approved recommendations aimed at strengthening relationships between the CRCNA and churches outside North America, adopting the Global Vision Team report from the Council of Delegates. Delegates also had the opportunity to hear from ecumenical guests as they shared stories of their ministries.

Council for World Mission Assembly meets in Durban, South Africa: Keynote speaker Puleng Lenka-Bula set the tone by reflecting on how hope and faith lead to transformative action. Lenka-Bula, of Lesotho and South African descent, is a trained feminist ethicist with a Ph.D. in Social Ethics. Lin Ming-Chu Natalie, from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), was elected as the next moderator, succeed outgoing moderator Lydia Neshangwe.

The World Council of Churches in Geneva: A pilgrimage to places of ecumenical memory: As the World Council of Churches (WCC) says goodbye to its present headquarters, hoping to return to a renovated Ecumenical Centre before long, we invite you to pay a visit to some places of ecumenical memory in Geneva with which the inspiring life stories of youth ecumenical organizzations and of the WCC are associated.

Lutheran World Federation Council concludes: new strategy, study processes, public statements: The new LWF Council’s first full meeting concluded after having approved a new strategy, theological study processes, and statements on public and ecumenical matters. The Council also received ecumenical greetings from their partners, including the WCRC.

In May, five students visited the UEM Mission House. They are studying in Bochum at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe and come from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and South Africa.

As part of the activities of the Fiftieth Year of the Founding of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and in an ecumenical media step aiming at consolidating the Christian Faith and spreading human values through the media, a memorandum of media cooperation was signed between the MECC, Télé Lumière – Noursat TV channel, and the Near East School of Theology (NEST).