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.

Young theologians on future issues of mission: Is there miraculous healing in today's churches? How can people be reconciled in a society torn apart like post-apartheid South Africa? How can the Holy Spirit help to find a new understanding of mission?

In solidarity with the churches of Togo, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, called today for a return to "constitutional sobriety" in the country, and emphasized the concern of the Council and of churches worldwide provoked by the constitutional crisis in the country.

Lent provides an important opportunity to focus on the challenges of working together to overcome the violence in our culture. The US Committee for the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) invites Christians to enter into the Lenten season with a focus on the growing violence in our world and the need for peace and reconciliation.

Reaching decisions by consensus, a major shift in the culture and ethos of the World Council of Churches (WCC), will be at the centre of the upcoming meeting of its Central Committee, which will take place 15-22 February in Geneva.

Ecumenical agencies and churches working in the field of relief and development have called for the creation of a new international alliance of church-related organizations to address issues of poverty and injustice, provisionally named "ACT Global".

Nearly two months ago, a tremendous earthquake off the coast of Sumatra caused powerful tsunamis to hit coastal stretches of South East Asia and East Africa. The trail of devastation left over 200,000 people dead and more than half a million injured, and emergency relief was provided almost immediately by governments and organizations around the world. Looking back at the weeks just after the tsunami, we can attempt a first assessment of the...

The launch of an ecumenically-sponsored TV documentary on illegitimate debt and a call to take part in a Global Week of Action on Trade next April were among the highlights of a seminar on "Moving further on illegitimate debt" held during the fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre on 30 January 2005.

Is reconciliation possible? What does forgiveness mean, and what is needed for it to happen when the offence was a frightful one and the pain seems insurmountable? These and other fundamental questions will be part of the themes treated at the next Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).