WCC NEWS: “Christians, rise up in joy!” WCC Easter message brings hope that enters a broken world

In its Easter message, the World Council of Churches (WCC) urges Christians to rise up in joy, emphasising a hope that enters the brokenness of the world. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 11 April 2025 Shared with the WCC global fellowship and with all people of good will by WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay and moderator of the WCC central committee Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the message offers the reassurance that God is at work to renew the world and to ensure that life will triumph over death, good over evil, and light over darkness. “God is for us, always creating and sustaining life,” reads the message. “God is with us, always healing and redeeming us and all creation. And God is in us, always present and beckoning us to personal and social transformation and into God’s New Creation.” The message also acknowledges that the world is not at peace. “Conflicts and wars among nations, tensions between peoples, and violence against the powerless are growing,” the text reads. “The world is not reconciled—and it is questionable whether it is even trying to be.” Yet the mystery of Christ makes us see for ourselves and witness for the world a life-giving hope and love precisely when they appear to be lost. As the message notes: ”In this Special Ecumenical Year we mark anniversaries important to the Church—like that of the Council of Nicaea (325) and the centenary of the Stockholm Conference (1925)—and coincidentally all Christians will celebrate Easter on the same day.  Could it not always be so, with a common feast of Easter, the heart of our shared faith? It would be a profound sign of reconciliation and a tangible expression of the unity for which Christ prayed.” “So let us go forth as witnesses to the resurrection—not only in word, but in life,” the message concludes. “Let us sow signs of spring even in winter. Let us walk with the Risen Christ and with one another, embracing our time and working toward the day when all shall truly be one in the Lord.” Easter Message 2025 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