MISSION IN A CONTEXT OF CRISIS

We are committed to God’s work of renewal and transformation, especially doing mission in places of crisis

Global Reformed Advocacy Platforms for Engagement (GRAPE)

This program trains, supports, and accompanies the advocacy work of member churches and regions, enabling them to make a constructive contribution to conflict transformation.

GRAPE is structured according to the Reformed principle of subsidiarity, where the wider structures have the mandate to facilitate what cannot be achieved at the local level.

Locally, advocacy work addresses peace and justice issues that members experience in their particular locations. Regionally and globally, GRAPE provides support by sharing experiences, lobbying international organizations, creating broad public awareness, and organizing advocacy campaigns.

Freedom of Religion

As we witness a growing escalation in religiously-fueled hate crimes, and the denial of human dignity, and the freedom of religion, belief and expression, we are called to speak out, take action, to continually reform and be reformed.

Responding to the 2017 General Council’s strong call to hear the cries of suffering people, the WCRC calls on member churches to take a side, the side of the oppressed.

In early 2020, a group of 22 church leaders and theologians met to deliberate together and find a faithful paradigm of thinking over the issue of freedom of religion. As part of their work together, this group concluded:

We are called to assume a theology of courageous risk and a radical and mutual hospitality. For this we can look to examples of religious cooperation and support even in the midst of religious violence. We recognize that only an interreligious community of imagination can challenge nationalist notions of intolerant religiosity that deny the dignity and religious freedoms of the vulnerable. We call for a lived theology of resistance, restoration and reconciliation.

> > Read the full statement: Freedom Of Religion: Hearing All the Cries

Global Initiatives for Peace and Reconciliation

Discipleship calls for the crossing of all borders and barriers that separate people from one another, from creation and from God.

Many of WCRC member churches are on the frontlines of peace processes, and the WCRC seeks to strengthen the activities of these members around peace -building, reconciliation, and mission. We have worked in the following areas to promote peace: