Member Church News: Solidarity, Bicentenary, Ecology

Together with a few ecumenical partners, “Solidarity with the Suffering,” a 35-member delegation of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network returned home last week after eight days of solidarity with people who are suffering and mourning the deaths of those who have died in the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.

Joint pastoral letter in times of violence: “We are passing through the time of Lent. A time of ashes… and also of hope. Because beyond sin and death, we have in Christ Jesus the certainty that all realities alien to God’s will, even those that are extremely devastating, will be transformed into Life,” says the joint Pastoral Letter signed by Leonardo Schindler, president of the Evangelical Church of Rio de la Plata and Américo Jara Reyes, bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina.

Council for World Mission celebrates Church of Bangladesh’s Jubilee Year, Bicentenary of St Thomas’ Cathedral: March is a significant month for the Church of Bangladesh as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The Church of Bangladesh is a united Protestant church comprising mainly the Anglican and Presbyterian denominations.

“Feast of Creation” seminar explores and inspires toward global ecological transformation: The World Council of Churches (WCC) cosponsored with Laudato Si Research Institute and the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, Anglican Communion, and World Methodist Council an international seminar on “The Feast of Creation and the Mystery of Creation: Ecumenism, Theology, Liturgy, and Signs of the Times in Dialogue,” from 14-16 March at Laudato Si’ Center of Assisi and Pro Civitate Christiana, in Italy.

The World Council of Churches has published online new materials related to the 2024 Easter Initiative: “Out of the darkness – Easter solidarity with the Holy Land.”

_{Image: Photo: Tomás Insua/WCC.}