The 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches in 2018 coincides with the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .
Professor John Mbiti, theologian and former director of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has recently become the first African scholar to translate the entire Christian New Testament from Greek to Kikamba, a local Kenyan language.
From time-to-time, unsurprisingly, people ask us about the name 'Ekklesia'. We have an FAQ on that, which you can find here (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/about/faqs/10), but it is something that we should probably talk about more.
Ask anyone reporting or commenting on the 2013 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and they will tell you that proceedings this year are being dominated by two 'issues': the reception, or otherwise, of same-sex persons in the life and ministry of the Kirk; and later this week 'The inheritance of Abraham: A report on the promised land' (which has provoked a substantial preemptive assault by the pro-Israeli government lobby, on account of its advocacy of justice for Palestinians and Jews alike).
In the face of divisions in the church and the world, "no one has the right to exclude the other," says the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.
In a previous blog (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17832), I noted the significant coincidence of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States with the second inauguration of President Barack Obama ('Obama, MLK and the dream of a better world').
The Voice, a new translation of the Bible, has sparked an impassioned but not always very well-informed debate about the nature of the text, observes Savi Hensman. But skilful understanding and interpretation invite open-heartedness, not close-mindedness, she suggests.
This morning the conference entitled 'The Eye of the Needle: Biblical Clues to a New Economy' begins in Bristol, co-sponsored by the Southwest churches and Ekklesia.