The online meeting provided commissioners an opportunity to hear from one another, bring greater cohesion to their common work, exchange information on the progress of the study groups, and prepare more fully for the conference. The commissioners planned for their meeting in 2026, and strengthened their bonds of fellowship. The meeting also included a remembrance of Rev. Dr Peter Cruchley, former director of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. Rev. Prof. Dr Stephanie Dietrich, moderator of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order, offered an address that described the spirit of the commissioners’ work together. “We come together from different churches, contexts, and traditions,” she said. “We carry different experiences and expectations. The work of Faith and Order has always been both deeply theological and profoundly hopeful.” Soon, Dietrich said, they will meet in Egypt, a place rich in Christian history, theology, and spirituality.” The theme before us asks, ‘Where now for visible unity?’ Perhaps, as we draw nearer to the conference, we might begin to say, “There now for visible unity!’ ” she said. “Because in our praying, in our studying, in our listening to one another, we are not only asking questions – we are also shaping answers, shaping pathways, shaping new possibilities for our common witness." Dr Andrej Jeftić, director of the WCC Faith and Order Commission, offered a report on the commission’s work over the past several months, including work with other WCC commissions. The three study groups have met regularly to deepen discernment on visible unity—revisiting baptismal ecclesiology and models of unity; the imago Dei—situating moral discernment within an explicitly theological anthropology; and the church’s witness in and for the world—holding together martyria, diakonia, and leitourgia in a fractured public sphere. “This work has unfolded in intentional conversation with the Nicene tradition: not as antiquarian recall, but as an ecumenical grammar for confessing the Triune God today,” said Jeftić. “Through youth participation, collaboration with sister commissions and WCC programmes, and Nicaea-focused events, webinars, and publications, we have sought both faithfulness to the apostolic confession and responsiveness to contemporary challenges.” “Preparations for the Sixth World Conference, together with a series of events leading up to it, have developed in multiple directions,” he continued. “This has been a demanding period, marked by numerous activities, preparations, logistical planning, and fundraising. As we meet now, I trust this moment will allow us to reconnect, strengthen cohesion across the work of our study groups, and prepare ourselves for the tasks ahead.” Study groups share deep progress Study Group 1, “Being church on the way to visible unity,” aims at continuing and broadening the work of Faith and Order on ecclesiology, by focusing especially on issues such as baptismal ecclesiology and visible unity in the light of contemporary world Christianity. “In the sections of the upcoming Nicaea World Conference, the study group prepares a series of presentations on the recent and upcoming work of the commission on the above issues, including topics like different visions of visible unity; steps towards it; the gifts and implications of baptism; the involvement of all the baptized in the leadership and decision-making; and the role of baptismal ecclesiology in thinking about unity,” reported the study group’s co-conveners, Rev. Dr Ge Wen and Rev. Dr Sotiris Boukis. “The group also prepares two workshops for the conference: one on steps towards a common date of Easter, and one on synodal discernment and Christian witness in a world of growing polarization.” Wen and Boukis shared that their hope “is to facilitate new meaningful conversations on church unity and to create space for thought-provoking contributions in the upcoming conference.” Study Group 2, co-convened by Archbishop Emerita Dr Antje Jackelén and Dr David Kirchhoffer, focuses on emerging issues in theological anthropology that pose important questions for visible unity, in particular the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies. “Moreover, the group aims to further and promote the work of the previous commission in moral discernment, particularly the tool developed in Facilitating Dialogue to Build Koinonia,” reported the co-conveners. Study Group 3, convened by His Eminence Abraham Stephanos and Rev. Preb. Dr Isabelle Hamley, is exploring questions of conflict, violence, justice, peace and reconciliation. “What can an ecumenical perspective bring to both our understanding of conflict, and to our understanding and practice of peace and reconciliation?” the co-conveners asked. “This study group is engaging with questions of decolonisation, and how ecumenical methodology may need to change in order to foster the flourishing of our life together, as well as speak into ongoing conflicts in the world that our churches inhabit.” This work, they reported, “will be grounded in contextual methodologies and attention to local voices, while asking how we speak together in meaningful and transformative ways.” More about the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order | 
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