WCC NEWS: WCC webinar: no woman banished for her God-given biology

More than 500 million girls and women lack access to adequate menstrual products or hygiene facilities. Many are kept from school, from churches, from public life, because of something their faith communities have rarely spoken of. On 4 June, the World Council of Churches (WCC) brought together participants from four continents to confront that silence, in a Menstrual Hygiene Day webinar themed "Breaking the Blood Taboo." Webinar: Breaking the Blood Taboo: Faith Communities as Allies in Menstrual Hygiene & Period Poverty 09 June 2026 "For something so universal, so natural, so fundamental to the continuation of human life, the silence on menstruation is not only inexplicable, but also it's inexcusable,” said Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, WCC programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace. Mtata traced the stigma back to purity codes in Leviticus, misapplied across traditions for centuries, before pointing to Christ's healing of a woman who had bled for 12 years. "He did not turn away from her impurity. He restored her dignity." His goal for the WCC: a world in which "no woman is banished from community, worship, or dignity because of her God-given biology." “As Christians, we have considered the holiness of the blood that flew from the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion,” said Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, while responding to Jess Hall, theologian and researcher from Aotearoa New Zealand, “but we don’t talk about the blood that flew in Jesus’ veins from Mary’s uterus.” As of 2026, approximately 2.1 billion girls and women menstruate globally, yet more than 500 million cannot access adequate menstrual products or hygiene facilities, according to the World Bank and UNICEF. In many countries, one in four girls misses school during her period.  Hall developed that thread in a recorded address. "Salvation could not just be wished for, or thought about," she said. "Bodies were needed. The sweaty, roaming body of a young messiah, and the bleeding, growing body of a young woman." Theology, she argued, can be a resource for dismantling the very stigma it once helped construct. Michele Vecchi, WASH specialist with Norwegian Church Aid, brought the argument from scripture to infrastructure. In many communities, women and girls who lack private sanitation at home are forced to find hidden places to manage their periods, exposing them to harassment and violence. Denying those services and then blaming women for the consequences is, he said, a double injustice. "We cannot discriminate people two times, not even one, but for sure, not twice." Three WCC young research fellows, Roksanna Keyvan, Rosa Soto Ceferino, and Toyosi Olatayo, working across WASH governance, environmental engineering, and social advocacy, brought the conversation to the ground. Together they traced what they called the geography of menstruation: the reality that climate change, water scarcity, and inadequate infrastructure compound period poverty differently depending on where a girl is born. Keyvan, who has worked with faith-based organisations on water projects in Nepal, the Dominican Republic, and the Amazon, stressed that access depends not on construction alone but on who trains local operators and who is accountable when systems fail. Olatayo, speaking from Nigeria, issued a direct challenge to faith communities: in contexts where the church is the most trusted institution, its silence on menstruation is not neutrality, it is complicity. For Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga, WCC programme executive for HIV, Reproductive Health, and Pandemics, menstrual stigma compounds the discrimination faced by women living with HIV, migrants, refugees, and women with disabilities. "The women should never be alone on this. A good period is a manifestation of your health." "Moving from stigma to dignity, from silence to solidarity, from exclusion to inclusion," she said. And, in closing: "We should not get tired. The church can become the family, the faith community can become the family, the network, the support that women need. Let's do it for them." The webinar was organised by the World Council of Churches in collaboration with Norwegian Church Aid and the Partnership of Religion and Development. Period. End of Sentence. (documentary) UNICEF - Menstrual health and hygiene World Bank - Period poverty data International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) Norwegian Church Aid — WASH work See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland