The spiritual and moral dimensions of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.

During a youth interfaith seminar outside Geneva last month some participants realized the religious differences are usually smaller than imagined and cultural differences are often more significant than expected.

Representatives of ecumenical organizations meeting in advance of the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City vowed to launch a global campaign to help churches become competent in dealing with the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will welcome five young people (aged 18-30 years) to serve as interns in its Geneva offices from February 2009 to January 2010. Interns bring valuable experiences to the WCC at the same time as they undertake several modules of ecumenical learning.

Ideas for "bringing unity down to earth", "communicative action" and a "theology of the wilderness" were among the winning entries submitted for an essay contest on Prospects for Ecumenism in the 21st Century. The winners, two women and four men, come from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Over the last decade, Orthodox women reached significant milestones regarding their participation in church life, but many of their concerns have not yet been fully addressed, an international gathering of Orthodox women stated.

Two international ecumenical bodies called on the UN, the South African Development Community and the African Union "to increase [their] efforts to address the rapidly deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe". Emergency aid, postponement of the run-off election and the responsibility of the international community to intervene in protection of the people are amongst the main concerns.

As the internet has developed into a social network where individuals as well as institutions exchange ideas via text, sound and pictures, churches face new opportunities and challenges. At the 13th European Christian Internet Conference in Lyon, France, 13-17 June, participants came from as far away as Iceland and Romania to share their views on how the churches should be "following Jesus into virtual space", as one of the keynote lecturers put...

Churches worldwide are being invited to celebrate a day of prayer for Zimbabwe on Sunday, 22 June, as the beginning of a season of prayer for the people and government of the African country, which is facing a critical time.

With an estimated 850 million people suffering from hunger worldwide, nine out of ten of which live in developing countries, "the scandal of hunger demands the immediate attention of the churches", affirmed today in a statement the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.