WCC news: International Review of Mission explores women and the Council of Nicaea

The latest issue of the World Council of Churches (WCC) journal, International Review of Mission, focuses on the role and place of women at the Council of Nicaea, a foundational event for Christianity whose 1700th anniversary is being commemorated in 2025.  Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, under whose patronage the Council of Nicaea gathered: Detail from a Greek manuscript dated 879-883 CE. Photo: Public domain 6 August 2025 The council, as guest editor Dr Mutale Mulenga Kaunda writes in the editorial, was a gathering of male bishops, but women's influence, though indirect and largely inaudible in historical records, was nonetheless significant. “While women were not formal participants, and their contributions remain undocumented at the Nicaea council, it is important to acknowledge that they were present in early Christian communities as vital supporters, educators, and patrons,” writes Kaunda, a research tutor at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and a research associate at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa. However, “if this was the case, it means that men then appropriated, without acknowledgement, the ideas of women.” The issue is a contribution to the WCC’s Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order to take place at Wadi El Natrun in Egypt in October 2025 and which will mark the Nicaea anniversary. Articles in the issue explore the presence of women at the council, understood not only as physical proximity but as the expansive influence, relational engagement, and enduring memory of a person or group of persons. “This issue of IRM further explores the historical exclusion of women from significant theological events and the historical legacies of ecclesiological exclusion of women,” writes Kaunda. “This has implications for the various ways in which women continue to be excluded from religious doctrines and leadership roles.” The initiative for this thematic issue came from IRM editor, Rev. Dr Peter Cruchley, the director of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, and Rev. Nicole Ashwood, WCC programme executive for a Just Community of Women and Men. Kaunda, active in the Ecumenical Network of Global Actors for Gender Justice, and who participated at the WCC 11th assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022 with the Just Community of Women and Men in an advisory capacity, was then asked to serve as guest editor.  Dr Andrej Jeftić, director of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order, took part in the review of abstracts and selection of articles. Kaunda said: “While women's perspectives maybe have inspired some of the discussions at Nicaea, women cannot and should not continue to be heard through men who do not often acknowledge that the ideas they are sharing are from women. “We hope this issue will contribute to making women's presence and voice fully included in  conversations about equality and equity.” Ashwood said: “One of the joys of this project was the intentional cross-disciplined focus that fostered inclusivity in spaces of academic rigour that often feels often feels exclusive to males.”  She added: “Including women’s perspectives through this volume affirms the WCC’s commitment toward our visible unity in the Just Community of Women and Men.” International Review of Mission is published twice a year for the WCC by Wiley. More information about Nicaea 2025 and the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order Read Mutale Mulenga Kaunda ‘s  Guest Editorial  Table of Contents Information about subscriptions See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC NEWS - International Review of Mission engages with mission in the contexts of empire

Under the theme, “Mission in the Contexts of Empire,” the World Council of Churches journal International Review of Mission examines issues of Christian mission and empire in the history of key events being marked in 2025 and the mission systems, assumptions, mindsets, and practices they created.  Image: WCC 24 April 2025 The events in 2025 include the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea – the first attempt to reach consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom – and the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference, through which Africa was partitioned between imperial powers.  “Our authors explore these issues from a range of contexts and perspectives, seeking to offer ways for each of these commemorations to stir fresh decolonial mission practices,” editor Rev. Dr Peter Cruchley writes in his introduction to the issue. The Council of Nicaea gathered under the patronage of Roman Emperor Constantine I as it marked the transition from Christians being a persecuted minority to becoming a church recognized by the Roman State. It led to the adoption of the Nicene Creed still being said in churches today. “Nicaea's association with a dominant Eurocentric, imperial mindset has historically influenced Christian mission and practice, sometimes implying that faith in Jesus can be imposed through power and empire,” writes Cruchley, The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was convened by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismark for central and western European powers to discuss the portioning of Africa in their exploitation of Africans and African resources to quench the thirst of their economies, Cruchley notes. “While the political and economic impact of the outcomes of the Berlin Conference have been discussed widely and some broad agreements exist, the impact of these outcomes on European Christian churches have not always been honestly engaged,” he continues. An event in May 2025 organized by the WCC and ecumenical partners will engage with the outcomes of the 1884-85 Berlin conference and develop responses to the historic and continuing legacies of colonization. The WCC event is “imagined as a platform to remember the past, reclaim the present, and, most importantly reimagine the future,” writes Cruchley. “How can churches, broadly speaking – Black churches and white churches – contribute to the affirmation of the humanity, dignity, and hopes of Africans and people of African Descent?”   Table of Contents: International Review of Mission: Mission in the Contexts of Empire Information about subscriptions  More information about the WCC commemoration of the Nicaea anniversary More information about the WCC event to engage with the 1884–85 Berlin Conference   Open Access articles published in this issue of IRM: Joerg Rieger: On the Homoousia: The Liberative Potential of the Nicene Creed Nicolás Panotto: Decolonizing the Triune God: Contributions from Latin American Liberation Theologies Gerald O. West: Engaging with the Nicene Creed through Contextual Bible Study: Mark 10:17-22 Johannes J. Knoetze: The Nicene Creed, the Church, and Christian Mission: A Creative Tension Cristian Sonea: The Spirituality of the Nicene Creed and Its Missionary Implications in the Parish Community *International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the World Council of Churches. See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC NEWS: Latest issue of International Review of Mission continues focus on “Christ’s love: mission and unity”

Continuing to look toward the 2022 assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that will gather around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” the latest issue of the WCC journal International Review of Mission focuses on “Christ's love: mission and unity.” 16 May 2022 “It is important to observe that the assembly theme is the first explicitly Christological theme since the WCC assembly in Vancouver in 1983, which had the theme ‘Jesus Christ, the light of the world,’ ” writes editor Rev. Dr Risto Jukko, Director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, in his introduction to the issue. Previously, the journal published issues on mission and reconciliation, and one issue on mission and unity. The current issue deals with the same topic: relations between mission and unity. “The message that God has reconciled us and the world through Christ is the message that is the basis for unity in mission, the unity of churches, and the unity of humankind, and at the same time the message of hope that the world needs, especially now, when we are living our third year with the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Jukko. Jukko further notes: “Based on God’s reconciliation with us, we need to be reconciled with ourselves, with people around us, and with creation or the environment.” The diversity of articles is vast. One article in the issue reflects on “The Challenge for Christian Unity and Reconciliation Today from a Decolonial Perspective,” while others focus on mission education in Burma, the spirituality of moderation, and many other facets of the intersection of mission and unity. International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the WCC. Contents of the latest issue (May 2022): “Christ’s Love: Mission and Unity” The International Review of Mission in the Wiley Online Library Subscription information See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland