In an Easter message, more than 60 South African church leaders and Christian, Jewish and Muslim lay theologians have conveyed their solidarity with Palestinian Christians in their Kairos call.

Crowds of demonstrators defied movement restrictions on Palm Sunday, marching through a checkpoint blocking access to Jerusalem before soldiers could stop them.

"With great hope and deep satisfaction" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the news that a Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq has been established. "In our view, it is a development that augurs as much for the future of the churches in Iraq as it does for Iraq as a nation," the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit wrote in an 18 February congratulatory message to the members of the new body.

pief.oikoumene.org is a new website launched by the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum geared to providing a springboard for advocacy, public education, and mobilization.

World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, said the endorsement by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem of the “Kairos Palestine” document “adds integrity, authority and force to the message of the document.”

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.

A group of Palestinian Christians representing a variety of churches and church-related organizations have issued an animated and prayerful call for an end to occupation of Palestine by Israel.

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.

Churches and other ecumenical partners of the World Council of Churches (WCC) have received an appeal to "mobilize their members and the public" in resistance to Israel's approval for the construction of 900 new housing units in the Gilo settlement on traditionally Palestinian land in East Jerusalem. The WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, called on organizations related to the Council "to act with resolve, in...

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has asked the United Nations secretary-general to make sure that recommendations of a key report about war crimes committed during the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces in Gaza at the beginning of 2009 are properly followed up.