The refusal movement in Israel has grown rapidly over the last few years. It has become more accepted in Israeli society to refuse military service in the occupied territories and become what is known as a "refusenik". A member of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) gives an account of this new phenomenon.

A seminar on the responsibility of the UN for human rights in Iraq, to be held at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on Tuesday 22 March 2005 (13:00-16:00), will focus on the norms and principles that should apply to the situation in Iraq, and facilitate a dialogue on the responsibilities of the international community and UN human rights machinery.

A new group of 12 "ecumenical accompaniers" last week joined four others staying on in Israel and Palestine from previous groups within the framework of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The new arrivals bring the total number of ecumenical accompaniers now on the ground to 16.

In a series of public statements and recommendations approved one day before the end of its 15-22 February meeting in Geneva, the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee covered a wide range of issues.

To open debate in the appropiate international forums about "a timetable for the reduction and termination of the United States-led coalition’s military presence in Iraq and for the removal of its military bases there" is the first among a series of recommendations made in a statement about Iraq approved by the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee one day before the end of its 15-22 February meeting in Geneva.

Planners for the ninth WCC assembly promised a dynamic event for 2006 during an update to the central committee Wednesday - exactly one year before the assembly.

Dialogue and conversation took centre stage at the WCC central committee meeting on Thursday as members broached the subject of human sexuality. Using a proposed new consensus model for conducting meetings, information was presented and discussed without the heated atmosphere that often surrounds such controversial issues.

Eight churches - from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean region - have been received into the fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC), but the total number of the Council membership increased only from 342 to 347, since other member churches have either merged or applied for joint memberships.

To restate the ecumenical vision for the 21st century requires a profound change in churches and ecumenical bodies, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia told the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) today.

Ninety years ago, the Ottoman empire began to kill the Armenians within its borders. Systematic genocide took up to a million and a half Armenian lives. By 1923, almost the whole Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared.