Understanding is the first step on the road to reconciliation. This is one of the convictions that Christian youth from diverse regions will carry home with them following a week of conversations and reflections on the themes of mission, reconciliation and healing.

More than a hundred people from diverse faiths and traditions will participate at the "Critical moment in interreligious dialogue" conference scheduled for 7-9 June 2005 to analyse, assess and review the experience of interreligious collaboration and dialogue as it has been practised over recent decades and might be practised in future.

A new group of 18 ecumenical accompaniers last week joined four others staying on in Israel and Palestine from the previous group 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 22.

Grace and peace to you on this Feast of Pentecost 2005, in which we celebrate the many gifts of God’s Spirit!

People going to Brazilian churches these days have the opportunity not only to free themselves of the weight of their sins but also of their weapons and the risks entailed in their possession.

On 10 May, when 500 delegates from all over the world meet in Athens for the opening session of the first world mission conference in the 21st century, many more participants world-wide will be able to join them online.

A memorandum sent today by the World Council of Churches' (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, to the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, shares WCC points of view on issues dealt with in Annan's report on reforming the UN.

> World youth prepares for mission > Conference on World Mission and Evangelism > Grassroots voices at the 58th World Health Assembly > WCC at the the 30th Kirchentag > Samuel Kobia at Finnish church gathering

In congratulating the newly-elected pope, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia prayed for "renewed commitment" to "ecumenical openess" and "a dialogue of conversion".

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia today congratulated WCC staff member Dr Tarek Mitri on his appointment as minister of environment and administrative development in Lebanon's transitional government.