WCC NEWS: WCC launches webinar series on Theology of Companionship

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will host a webinar series, starting in September, exploring the Theology of Companionship: a way of walking together with mutuality, shared vulnerability, and accountable relationships—even across unequal power. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 17 August 2026 The five-part series will show how the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity appears —through a lens of companionship— as a theological orientation and an ecclesial practice.  Participants will be invited to explore companionship as a deep yet understandable journey from theological foundations to practical implementation. The series will move through five themes: foundations, method, ethics, context, and implementation. The opening session, “Why Companionship Now? Biblical and Ecumenical Foundations,” will be led on 9 September by Prof. Dr Fernando Enns, from the Church Association of Mennonite Congregations in Germany. Subsequent sessions will examine companionship as a pilgrimage practice; the ethical challenges of power and asymmetry; contextual expressions of companionship; and pathways for translating the toolkit into education, formation, and lived church practice.  Each webinar will combine 45 minutes of theological reflection with a 15-minute question-and-answer session. Participants will be encouraged to connect theological insights directly with their own contexts. “The series is designed as a space for deeper theological engagement with the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation and Unity," said Dr Hyojin Kim, WCC coordinator for the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. “It aims to strengthen a shared theological language of companionship across WCC constituencies and to support churches, denominations, and ecumenical partners in interpreting and embodying the pilgrimage in their own contexts.” Session dates: 9 September 2026, 15:00 (Central European Time): Foundations Register for the webinar 10 November 2026, 15:00 (Central European Time): Method Register for the webinar 13 January 2027, 15:00 (Central European Time): Ethics Register for the webinar 3 March 2027, 15:00 (Central European Time): Context Register for the webinar 12 May 2027, 15:00 (Central European Time): Implementation Register for the webinar 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