Simone Sinn News Today

The smiles of students graduating from the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey picking up their credentials showed they experienced something unique that will bind them as they return to their different corners of the world.

Students sat entranced as the theologian recounted that after serving in the Hitler Youth and the German Army as a "patriot" in World War II, he turned his back on nationalism and the horrors of that conflict.

The smiles of students graduating from the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey picking up their credentials showed they experienced something unique that will bind them as they return to their different corners of the world.

In good weather, I was told, you might even be able to see Mont Blanc from up here. Here on the rising Jura mountains with its peaks behind you and Lake Geneva in front of you. But on a rainy day like this, you hardly had a chance to even glimpse the Alps on the other side of the lake. The day was to include other things than beautiful mountain landscapes, even as the 35 students from all over the world set out to climb new, ecumenical peaks. It was the Dies academicus of the Ecumenical Institut...

Dies Academicus at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey on 25 October brought 33 students from 21 countries together under the theme "Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity.”  The study day first engaged with the World Council of Churches (WCC) pilgrimage experience between the 10th and 11th assemblies, touching upon pilgrim visits, theological reflections within the WCC, and collaborative efforts with churches and ecumenical partners.

Iranian rector Ayatollah M. Seyyed Abolhassan Nawab and Ms Zahra Sedigh, from the Iranian Mission to the UN, visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 27 July, discussing education and formation, as well as the importance of strengthening the role of interreligious cooperation.  

The annual interreligious summer course opened in the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey on 25 July, ushering seven students from six different countries into an exploration of the theme “Health and Wholeness of Life in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”

The launch of the document “Building Interreligious Solidarity in Our Wounded World. The Way of Common Formation” will take place on 28 July, during the Interreligious Studies course at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, and will be livestreamed on the YouTube channel of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The Christians, Jews, and Muslims laughing and chatting together, learning about peace were not in an aspirational story; they are authentic, live young people having fun at the Emerging Peacemakers Forum.

Lasting friendships and gleaning a wealth of knowledge are the abiding memory of students every year who graduate from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey outside Geneva.