WCC NEWS: WCC materials educate—and advocate—for vaccine awareness and equality

As part of World Immunization Week, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is offering a range of resources designed to share accurate information about vaccines and help churches to advocate for vaccine equality across the world. 28 April 2021 From a first-of-its-kind handbook to help churches promote good health, to fact-based Q&As, to social media cards quoting “Vaccine Champions,” the WCC is, as deputy secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, said, “promoting health holistically as an issue of justice and peace.” The new handbook, “Health-Promoting Churches Volume II: A handbook to accompany churches in establishing and running sustainable health promotion ministries,” edited by Dr Mwai Makoka, WCC programme executive for Health and Healing, maps out a vision for local congregations to act as agents for healing. The handbook includes guidelines, resources and tools to equip and support local Christian congregations in starting sustainable health ministries, as well as a theological and public health basis for health-promoting churches. The week has also seen WCC “Vaccine Champions” speaking out on the importance of vaccines. Himself a Vaccine Champion, WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, has been encouraging religious leaders in all contexts to lend weight to vaccination programmes: “We must do all we can to protect people from COVID-19 and other potentially fatal diseases,” he said. “It is our duty to exercise the influence trusted upon us, beyond the pulpits in our local churches.” The WCC Vaccine Champions are nine church leaders from different continents who joined a team of 300, mobilized by UNICEF, to raise awareness on the benefits of immunization. WCC vaccine champion Archbishop emeritus Dr Anders Wejryd, WCC president for Europe, spoke during a WCC press briefing on 28 April, about how the WCC’s resources are joining “science and reason, life and health” as well as “practical actions and public witness.” Solid legwork in health and healing Both before and during World Immunization Week, the WCC has been publishing resources that help promote health and healing, an area it has been involved with for decades. Makoka also edited a previous volume, “Health-Promoting Churches: Reflections on Health and Healing for Churches on Commemorative World Health Days,” that includes 15 reflections on international commemorative health days to stimulate conversations on health matters in church congregations. Many of these resources look ahead to the future beyond COVID-19, because, as Makoka said, “we support building back better. Inequalities are continuing. It shouldn’t be just pressing the reset button.” In 2020, the WCC also published “Health and Hope: The Church in Mission and Unity,” a collection of previously published articles chosen to resonate with the worldwide struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and an “Ecumenical Global Health COVID-19 Response Framework” that identifies core challenges and response strategies for a global ecumenical response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also recommends specific actions. For a comprehensive list of WCC resources, see World Immunization Week Video: WCC Press Briefing - World Immunization Week WCC publishes first-of-its-kind handbook to help churches promote good health WCC Vaccine Champions ready to serve Download social media cards and resources 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 350 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