As the season of Lent draws near, the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) invites Christians to mark the occasion with reflection and action on water justice.

Representatives of churches in Iraq confirmed their commitment to work together with all Iraqi citizens for reconciliation and rebuilding peace in the country.

In a letter congratulating Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on his election as the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed the appreciation of the worlwide ecumenical fellowship for this "outstanding Orthodox theologian, leader and hierarch".

In her sermon at the first prayer service attended by US President Barack Obama after his inauguration, Rev. Dr Sharon Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), called on the leader who, she said, would "set the tone" for the nation, to chose compassion, faithfulness and love over vengefulness, anger and fear.

"The murder of Mr Lasantha Wickremetunge last week and killings of several other journalists in the past few years deepen the concern over a series of calculated attempts to stifle the media and to suppress differences of opinion and freedom of expression by violent means," said WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a 13 January letter to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In a statement to the plenary of high-level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland on Friday, 12 December, a delegation representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) will tell government representatives that a "much more principle-based approach is crucial for reaching an effective and equitable global climate policy regime built on the ethical imperatives of justice, equity and solidarity."

The AACC Assembly adopted a statement of concern on Thursday 11 December on the crisis in Zimbabwe, expressing displeasure that "President Mugabe is using power-sharing negotiations as a strategy for wasting time" while "acts of violence continue to be committed against those who do not support ZANU-PF", Mugabe's ruling party. The will of the Zimbabwe people as expressed in March 2008 elections has been thwarted, the Assembly said, and...

Liberian information minister Lawrence K. Bropleh spoke Monday on behalf of his country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in a keynote address to the ninth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). He called on African churches to regain and reassert their vision of bold leadership against a backdrop of global financial meltdown and political instability.

The message that climate changes threatens human rights and must therefore be considered an ethical issue will be brought to the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently under way in Poznań, Poland by a delegation representing the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The Convention on Cluster Munitions has been welcomed as a "humane and historic victory" by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. Commenting on the signing of the convention in Oslo, Norway today, Kobia congratulated the more than 100 signatory countries and reiterated the need for states that have not yet done so - including the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and Zimbabwe -...