ACT Alliance and the World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted their Joint Day on November 1st, the final day of the ACT Assembly and the first day of the WCC Executive Committee (ExCom) meeting.

The day aimed to explore what it means to be faith- and rights-based. It provided a space for listening, discussions and reflections on ecumenical diakonia and sustainable development.

The session shared case studies from the work of the alliance that illustrated ecumenical diakonia at the national level. One of the case studies presented was work of ACT members and churches in the El Diálogo Intereclesial por la Paz de Colombia (DiPaz) programme, highlighting its achievements at the community and national level, as well as the links to regional and global advocacy processes.

The General Secretaries of ACT Alliance and WCC closed the session. “One of the elements of our newly approved Global Strategy is our identity as a faith-based organisation,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of ACT Alliance.

“Theology is not a problem; it is a solution that connects us to our values. We must work to incorporate this in our policies, behaviours and actions so that we materialise our values and principles in what we do,” he continued. “We cannot implement [our global strategy] without theology, and we cannot do it without diakonia.”

“The Church must be for the others and therefore, the Church must be involved in diakonia,” said Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of World Council of Churches.​