Why should religious people be involved in the climate change debate? And how should religious people, particularly Christians, view themselves in relation to the earth and God, the creator of the earth?

At an impressive ceremony which brought together a wide spectrum of Palestinian civil society, including church leaders, and over 50 people from every region of the world, Palestinian Christians launched the document popularly referred to as the Kairos Palestine Document.

Rows of neat suburban houses stand on the parched, barren hillside. A water tower looms over them, irrigating lush greenery in the gardens. But outside this West Bank settlement's perimeter fence sits the tiny Bedouin community of Umm Al Kher, whose residents are desperate for water.

For nearly four hours, church activists participating in the World Council of Churches' (WCC) United Nations Advocacy Week meetings in New York delved deeply into the tragedies and injustices of the current bloody conflict in Colombia.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) United Nations Advocacy Week came with a bit of good news and bad news on climate change.

The rapidly developing field of stem cell research mobilizes immense amounts of money in private and public grants. But it also raises deep ethical questions regarding health justice and the dignity of human life.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, twenty years ago, many critics have been quick to sign liberation theology's death certificate. Most of them did so because they understood it to be an apology of bygone Soviet-style socialism. It seems, though, that this death certificate has been issued prematurely.

Mel Robeck, faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, California, has been a member of the Faith and Order Commission for 20 years. As a member of the Assemblies of God (a Pentecostal church with a membership of 62 million), he represents his church in various theological dialogues. He tells me that he has gained so much from these meetings that he is now “more Christian”. I met him in the course of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission...

The opening or fall of the Berlin Wall was an unexpected event for the people most directly affected, but even more so for the world at large. The ecumenical movement was no exception. However, the events in 1989 East Germany were to have a wide and long lasting impact on it that can still be felt today.

The political and social shock waves caused by weeks of pro-democracy protests in East Germany and then the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, were felt around the world.