An international ecumenical delegation will visit Kenya beginning Wednesday to show solidarity with its struggling churches working for peace amid the country’s post-electoral violence.

The visiting team, being sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC), will also learn how the international fellowship of churches can best support Kenyan churches and their peace and reconciliation efforts. Group members are part of “Living Letters,” an initiative that is part of the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010). The visit on Jan. 30-Feb. 3 is being hosted by the National Council of Churches in Kenya.

WCC General Secretary the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, who is a Kenyan, said the violence and destruction in his homeland “portray a country that one would hardly recognize as Kenya.” more >>

The head of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, has expressed his support for full communion among all denominations by the middle of the 21st century.

In a front page interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published on Friday, Kenyan Methodist Kobia said that he expected the world’s Christian denominations to be united enough by that time to be able to join in Holy Communion together.

"My vision for the ecumenical movement is that by the mid-21st century we will have reached a level of unity such that Christians everywhere regardless of their confessional affiliations, can pray and worship together and feel welcome to share in the Lord's Table at every church," said Kobia. more >>

Representatives of the two largest Christian bodies in the world will come together Friday evening in Rome to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and close the worldwide event.

General secretary Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia of the World Council of Churches – which represents some 560 million Protestant Christians – will meet with Pope Benedict XVI – head of the more than 1-billion-member Roman Catholic Church – for a private meeting and later for an ecumenical Vespers service at the Roman basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the ecumenical service where Kobia will bring greetings on behalf of the fellowship of 347 churches constituting the WCC. The service concludes the traditional Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated Jan. 18-25 in the northern hemisphere. In the global south, churches favor the days around Pentecost to observe the Christian unity week. more >>

An ecumenical group is seeking to reconcile and bring back two of its historically black partner denominations that refused to participate in a recent meeting due to their frustration with the group’s progress on the racism issue.

To invite the disgruntled members back, members of Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) sent a letter to the top leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) on Jan. 16 to stress that “we are incomplete without you,” said participating United Methodist Bishop William Oden to the United Methodist News Service (UMNS).

The absence of the two denominations were said have overshadowed the ecumenical meeting. more >>

Christians across denominational lines celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Friday.

The week, Jan. 18-25, brings Christians worldwide together in prayer so that “we might become one,” as in Jesus’ prayer at his Ascension. This year, the theme is “Pray Without Ceasing,” taken from I Thessalonians 5:17.

The annual observance for Christian unity began in January 1908, when the “Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity” was celebrated in a remote chapel some 50 miles from New York City. more >>

One of the largest ecumenical groups in the United States decided Friday it would not be involved in this year’s presidential race in spite of the potential future benefits it could reap in knowing the next man or woman in the White House.

Christian Churches Together (CCT) during its second annual meeting in Baltimore, Jan. 8-11, decided that it would pursue efforts to combat domestic poverty instead of befriending candidates this year.

CCT comprises 37 national churches from five Christian “families” – Evangelical/Pentecostal, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Racial/Ethnic - and six national Christian organizations. more >>