While staff of the WCC and sister organizations such as the Lutheran World Federation are preparing for the COP17 meeting in Durban, South Africa next week, the ecumenical community in Brazil is starting to think about 2012 when the UN conference Rio+20 will assess the outcomes of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development.

WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit congratulates the Rev. Atle Sommerfeldt, general secretary of Norwegian Church Aid, on being appointed as bishop of Borg Diocese in the Church of Norway, as well as on his 60th birthday on 22 November.

A broad group of WCC member churches, inside and outside of Korea, were involved in a recent shipment of food aid to North Korea.

During the past year thousands of people from North Africa have disappeared in the Sinai Desert region while crossing the border between Egypt and Israel. “Falling prey to human traffickers, employment scams, harassment, organ thefts and forced deportations, these people face some of the worst human rights violations,” says Fr Mussie Zerai.

In preparation for becoming Ecumenical Centre tour guides, six students of Catholic theology from the University of Fribourg in central Switzerland recently spent a day in Geneva to seek deeper understanding of the modern ecumenical movement and the work of the WCC.

Calgary, Canada was the site of a consultation on poverty, wealth and ecology that has issued a series of calls to action and reflection in a time of global financial crisis, environmental threat, and resistance to the ways of Wall Street and its allied economic structures. Representatives of North American churches urged their ecumenical and interfaith partners “to undertake a decade of action on eco-justice encompassing both ecological and...

“We are packed inside prison walls like sardines in a plastic carton”, says 22-year-old Ibrahim, who has been imprisoned since September. Ibrahim made his comments to members of a WCC delegation, which visited Central Prison in late October as part of a human rights training programme in Sierra Leone.

At a recent meeting with the Brazilian minister for Human Rights, Maria do Rosário, the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, expressed the support of the WCC for the implementation of a truth commission in the country.

Metropolitan Damaskinos of Andrianople, who died on 5 November at the age of 75, has been described as a world-renowned theologian, eminent professor, prolific writer, respected church leader, beloved pastor and esteemed ecumenist. This tribute appears in a memorial letter from the WCC general secretary.

Dr Marlon Weichert, a prominent Brazilian human rights advocate, visited the WCC offices in Geneva on Tuesday. In an interview, he appreciated the role of churches in assisting Brazil as it comes to terms with its painful past and envisions a better future. A truth commission in Brazil, he says, will start to make sense when churches continue using faith values in protecting human rights.