pief.oikoumene.org is a new website launched by the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum geared to providing a springboard for advocacy, public education, and mobilization.

The endowment of two new scholarship funds geared towards facilitating studies at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was celebrated at the graduation ceremony for the 61st session of the institute's Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies on 3 February.

The role of the church in building just peace was highlighted last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where three World Council of Churches (WCC) advisory groups met to recognize the culmination of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) and the forthcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) scheduled for May 2011.

"God’s grace and Your Holiness’ genuine commitment has made Your first year as Spiritual Head of the Russian Orthodox Church a blessed and fruitful period, a year of great achievements in all fields of life of the Russian Orthodox Church," wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a letter to Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia on 1 February.

The Continuation Committee on Ecumenism in the 21st Century, coordinated under the auspices of the World Council of Churches and composed of 15 representatives drawn from diverse churches and Christian organizations, met in Rome to formulate questions for broad discussion on future pathways toward unity.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has called on the international community to cancel Haiti's foreign debt.

As churches and church related organizations mobilize resources to bring immediate relief to the people of Port-au-Prince, they are also advocating for the international community to waive Haiti's foreign debt while building a more sustainable future for the country.

In a congratulatory letter to Bishop Irinej (Gavrilovic) of Nis, who was elected patriarch by the holy assembly of bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Friday, 22 January, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed " extraordinary joy" at the news of the election.

Christians around the world celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year are remembering the 1910 World Missionary Conference in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh as a key initiative that led to the ecumenical movement.

Konrad Raiser, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches (1993-2003), was awarded an honorary doctor's degree by the University of Hamburg's faculty of evangelical theology on 18 January. The title recognizes Raiser's contributions in sharpening the theological profile of the WCC and the momentum he has more than once given to the ecumenical movement as a whole and to the ecumenical awareness of German churches in particular.