WCC COMMUNICATION IN 2023: PROPHETIC ENLIGHTENMENT AND EVOLVING PATHS
A central committee steward poses for a social media post at the WCC central committee meeting in June 2023. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
In the 2023 World Council of Churches (WCC) communication, there is prophetic storytelling as well as a growing vehicle for increasing attention to justice, reconciliation, and unity around the world.
WCC Communications delivers young people's voices and visits, news from WCC member churches, and stories of hardship and hope.
The audience continues to increase.
The WCC website received 1.5 million global visitors in 2023. The website experienced the highest number of visits during the month of January, with 185,000 visits. This is due to many readers looking for information related to the week of prayer for Christian unity and news.
In 2023, the WCC published more than 800 articles, including news, feature stories, and interviews, with an average of 70 news articles online each month.
The total number of fans and followers of WCC's social media channels increased from 93,000 in 2022 to 97,000 in 2023, with Instagram recording the largest growth, adding 2,000 new followers due to campaigns and special materials posted there.
Peacebuilding, conversations between religions, youth, and WCC goals in areas of conflTict are discussed in stories from the meeting, as well as many others that are prophetic.
In addition, the WCC "live audience" broke records by attracting more than 600 people, including many young visitors.
There are numerous works of art at the Waterfall of Solidarity and Resistance that tourists adore. This tapestry, which is five meters long and more than six meters wide, consists of more than 180 panels made by hand by people around the world who share their pain and hope to overcome gender-based and sexual violence.
Many readers around the world love stories like this. The prophetic voice of the WCC is heard around the world, with 15,200 mentions in the global media.
Many channels
Readers and listeners love a variety of topics and listen to many WCC channels, including weekly WCC news summaries, WCC blogs, social media, and websites.
Dozens of WCC online productions, including webinars, live events, prayer services, special interviews, and video greetings to churches and member partners around the world, can be found on the WCC YouTube channel. Viewers and readers followed three livestreamed prayer services, 54 interviews, 27 webinars, 46 YouTube short videos, 21 livestreamed events, 18 WCC video greetings, and 46 YouTube short videos
The WCC’s online production team records material for use in social media in May 2023. Photo: Gloria Koymans/WCC
The WCC Blog continues to be a place where Christians and people of good will from around the world share their experiences in working to promote justice and peace. In 2023, 31 people, including academics, youth, church leaders, and ecumenists, as well as WCC staff, contributed to the WCC.
Instagram, Facebook, and WCC publish about 2,300 posts on social media each year, with an average of more than six posts per day on its platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Instagram is a very successful social media platform, with an 84% increase in the number of people viewing its posts compared to 2022.
Publications and journals
WCC continues to produce the three journals that Wiley publishes. In 2023, the ecumenical review and the International Mission Review will contain articles referring back to the 11th session of the WCC held in Karlsruhe, Germany. In addition, the ecumenical review covers thematic subjects related to the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 2025, which is an important event in the Christian faith.
Selection of WCC journals published in 2023. Photo: Gloria Koymans/WCC
While the dialogue currently addresses interfaith engagement and gender justice, a thematic issue in the International Mission Review is the decolonial task for current ecumenical missions, which emphasizes the importance of repentance, reparation, and restorative justice.
In 2023, the WCC completed 20 publications, including a series of Centennial missions, a report of the WCC's 11th Assembly, several HIV response resources, and an ecumenical International Youth Day Kit.
Archive and language services
Sign language interpretation is underway during a moment of prayer at the Ecumenical Centre chapel. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
About 500 news reports, feature stories, and statements, as well as more than ten webinars, were translated by the WCC language service, which forms the core team for the WCC working languages—English, Spanish, French, and German. The language service also hired new interpreters for WCC events.
To aid peacebuilding efforts, WCC materials were translated into a variety of languages, including sign language, Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Ukrainian, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Indonesian.
In collaboration with the library, the WCC archive continues its digitization program. Now, the entire collection of the Ecumenical Press Service, published weekly from 1933 to 1994, is available on the archive's Internet website. It allows researchers from all over the world to access historical sources about the ecumenical movement during the 20th century and to be witnesses to the daily lives of WCC member churches. A grant from the American Theological Library Association made this project possible.
In 2023, 70 people visited the archive for 201 days. In addition, the WCC archive responded to more than a hundred requests from academics.
Visit Program
The Bossey Ecumenical Center and Ecumenical Institute have a visitor program that will attract more than 600 visitors in 2023. This is a huge increase in the number of young visitors compared to the previous year. The WCC welcomes diverse groups for meetings and events. They include university students and professors, bishops, ordinands, journalists, clergy, priests, government leaders, ambassadors, delegates, religious leaders, international organizations, and people wishing to visit the Ecumenical Center.
News Source :https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-communications-in-2023-prophetic-storytelling-growing-channels
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