On February 28, 2026, Pope Leo XIV received a delegation at the Vatican composed of several officers from the World Council of Churches. The delegation included Evangelical Lutheran Church Bishop Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm; Archbishop Dr. Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church; Minister Merlyn Hyde Riley of the Jamaican Baptist Union; and Presbyterian minister Dr. Jerry Pillay, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. The meeting emphasized the need for visible Christian unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the various Protestant and Orthodox churches as a means of helping to heal and restore the troubled world.
The World Council of Churches published the following about their meeting with Pope Leo XIV:
• “Bedford-Strohm said the meeting clearly strengthened his hope for increasing unity amongst the churches. ‘We wholeheartedly agreed upon the necessity to put Christ in the center to move us to visible unity,’ he said.” [1]
• “Pillay expressed gratitude for ‘a heart-to-heart talk with Pope Leo on very important global issues. Our conversation evolved around the need for visible Christian unity especially in this time of numerous global challenges’.” [1]
• “The WCC delegation outlined the WCC’s work in the area of Christian unity and discussed the importance of working with fellow Christians in giving visible expression to the prayer of Jesus that all may be one.” [1]
• “We commended the Pope for his commitment to Christian unity and the collaboration and spirit in which the Vatican and WCC have been working together for many decades and reflected on what more we can do together, especially after the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council last year,’ said Pillay.” [1]
• “We acknowledged that the Christian message would be better and stronger together if Christian leaders stood together in unity and prophetic witness, especially in times such as these,’ said Pillay.” [1]
• “Pillay added: ‘Pope Leo responded to each of these issues and the other matters we raised with profound wisdom, spirituality and compassion. He reinforced what he has been saying all along about the need for visible Christian unity recognising the challenges this has even in the Roman Catholic Church because of different and diverse views’.” [1]
• “Pillay said that Pope Leo affirmed that, ‘while our task is not to build a Christendom yet Christians must work together in unity to heal and restore the world’.” [1]
• “The meeting concluded with the affirmative need to work together for unity, justice, and peace in the world, with all those gathered saying the Lord’s Prayer together.” [1]
This type of ecumenism—where Protestants and Catholics seek to end the divisions that have historically separated them—is helping to pave the way for the mark of the beast crisis. These interfaith ceremonies are designed to unite the churches, exalt Sunday worship, set aside biblical truth, and ultimately bring all under one head—Rome. We were warned that this kind of unity would seek common ground by minimizing doctrinal differences and that such efforts would eventually lead to attempts to secure Sunday as the universal day of rest.
“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.” (Great Controversy, p. 445).
Although these ecumenical gatherings may appear noble, harmonious, and well-intentioned, God’s prophetic word warns that deeper satanic forces operate behind these movements. For this reason, God’s commandment-keeping people are urged to stay away and to warn others about the errors and compromises of the ecumenical movement. Instead, faithful believers must openly and firmly defend the principles of divine truth, exalting the righteousness of God’s commandments as the standard of faith and practice to counter the deceptions of the enemy.
“Prophecy represents Protestantism as having lamb-like horns, but speaking like a dragon. Already we are beginning to hear the voice of the dragon. There is a satanic force propelling the Sunday movement, but it is concealed. Even the men who are engaged in the work, are themselves blinded to the results which will follow their movement. Let not the commandment-keeping people of God be silent at this time, as though we gracefully accepted the situation. There is the prospect before us, of waging a continuous war, at the risk of imprisonment, of losing property and even life itself, to defend the law of God, which is being made void by the laws of men” (Review and Herald, January 1, 1889).
Sources
[1] https://oikoumene.org/news/wcc-leadership-meets-pope-leo-xiv
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