Member Church News: Birth, Support, Prayer

A Syrian refugee family, sponsored by the First United Church, Ottawa, Canada, has welcomed the birth of a baby, likely the first baby to be born in Ottawa among the 1,500 Syrian refugees who have been arriving here since Christmas time.

The Uniting Church in Australia is working in Tuvalu to help the church there support the tiny nation in the grief and trauma associated with ongoing tidal surges and cyclonic events. They’re also connecting with the Fiji Council of Churches to continue planning and training towards a national ecumenical pastoral response to cyclones and other disasters.

A bit of history: A 1946 interview with a Norwegian bishop about his church’s resistance to the Nazis and how they were inspired by the Church of Scotland: “They saw it was a spiritual thing now, not a military thing; and we on our part saw that in the end it is the Church alone which can defend the right—it is her duty; it is deep in her conscience.”

The Pingtung Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan celebrated its 50th anniversary with its moderator looking back to its founding by a Scottish missionary and also ahead to be brave to change.

The Uniting Church in Australia has called on its members to join them in a new prayer for South Sudan.

With an eye toward embracing differences and moving past misconceptions, officials at the Greeley Mosque (Colorado, USA) hosted the city’s first Islam Open House. Don Orange, pastor at Fellowship Christian Reformed Church, presented Elmagbari with a peace lily as one of many Christian leaders who attended the open house.

Leaders of 24 churches in North America—including the United Church of Christ and other WCRC members—gathered for two days of prayer and to discuss the ethical urgency for a just peace in Palestine-Israel, to express ecumenical unity in action towards a lasting political solution to the Israeli occupation, and to strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

In a letter to Park Geun-hye, president of South Korea, the World Council of Churches expressed disappointment over sanctions and fines imposed on members of the National Council of Churches in (South) Korea after they participated in a dialogue encounter with representatives of the (North) Korean Christians Federation.

The presidents of the World Council of Churches, which include several members of the WCRC, have issued a Pentecost Message.