Young and old came from different parts of the world to the small village of Anata to rebuild a demolished Palestinian house together with Israelis and Palestinians. They wanted to provide a home for 23 people, but there was also a larger motivating factor. Building the house was also an act of resistance to the Occupation.

Geneva. Ecumenical News International, an independent news agency which covers the world of churches and religion for media in every part of the globe, is celebrating its 10th birthday.

The United Nations has called on all member states to observe 21 September as the International Day of Peace. In the framework of its Decade to Overcome Violence, the World Council of Churches, associating itself with the international community, has called on its member churches to observe the same day as an International Day of Prayer for Peace.

It is fully half a century since the second assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Evanston, Illinois. To date, this is the only WCC assembly to have been held in the United States. Incumbent US president Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomed the delegates and, speaking as "a single member of one of the constituent bodies of this council of churches", challenged them to mobilize their communions for "an intense act of...

Celebrating peace when the world is at war, when both Iraqis and Americans still are dying in Iraq, when civil war and genocide threatens thousands in the Sudan and again in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, may seem like an exercise in futility. But the truth is that it is when the world is at war that we need voices and prayers for peace even more.

Maya, 20 years old and Lior, 18, have lived their whole lives in Israel. They are part of the same people, have a common history, have gone to the same kinds of schools. Yet they have chosen two very different paths in life. While Maya was polishing her boots at a military base in Gaza, Lior was demonstrating against the Wall. But both women share a common dream that there will be peace between Israelis and Palestinians someday.

Poverty is relative. But for those who suffer from it, it is absolute. "I've always thought that Germans and other west Europeans lived in paradise," says M.P.T. Basele, a pastor from Botswana. "For us it is very important to find out that there is poverty in Germany too, and what poverty means in western Europe."

The International Association for Mission Studies meeting in Port Dickson, Malaysia, from 31 July to 7 August, 2004, was an in-depth personal and theological encounter between mission specialists of a kind which is rarely seen. Entitled "The Integrity of Mission in the Light of the Gospel - Bearing the witness of the Spirit," it brought together more than 200 people from 44 countries and a wide range of church traditions.

"Religious legitimization of violence," affirmed A. Rashied Omar, an imam from South Africa, "does not occur in a socio-historical vacuum, but within concrete human settings in which power dynamics are paramount". And this holds true despite the fact that "the hegemonic discourse of religion and violence largely ignores the issue of power".

A black-robed priest wanders slowly along the dazzling white walls of a monastery, beneath a bright blue sky. This is the “postcard” image which many western Christians have of the Orthodox world. The reality is much richer and more varied.