By Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca
In 2022, the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is to gather in Karlsruhe, Germany, around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”[1] Together with the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic is a strong and brutal reminder that human beings belong to creation and have been given the mandate to care for it. The pandemic is exacerbating existing inequalities and exposing still further existing structural injustice. Alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemics of ignorance, white supremacy, and hate are deadly, as is the pandemic of injustice. Racism and the politics of fear and hate are dividing and killing people. Other global trends that the assembly needs to address have also been recognized. These include the weakening of democracy through authoritarian politics of fear and hate; the ambiguous consequences of the digital revolution; the increasing militarization of conflict and warfare that is making millions of people refugees and increasing the danger that nuclear or biological and chemical weapons are used; and the growing recognition that we are living in a multireligious world in which Christians engage in dialogue and cooperate more and more with people of other faiths.
