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Serious death threats to human rights defenders, many of them church leaders, have been made by a paramilitary group in Colombia. The WCC, among other international organizations has called on Colombian government to protect their lives.

Outcomes, disappointments, as well as encouraging signs from the United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Peoples Summit held late last year in Lima, Peru, were discussed at length by representatives of faith communities.

Churches and religious leaders are at the forefront of efforts to mobilize action for a legally binding agreement on world’s climate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris at the end of 2015. The motivation of the WCC for its role in this arena is summarized in the title of its environmental programme: Care for Creation and Climate Justice.

Thousands of people are planning to embark on a pilgrimage of climate justice – either on foot or on bicycles – in many parts of the world.

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, officials of the Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation team of the WCC and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue met in Rome.

Attacks in Niger, resulting in the destruction of more than 70 churches and the killing of an undetermined number of people, were strongly condemned by the WCC. These events have come as repercussions following the Charlie Hebdo attack and the “Je suis Charlie” campaign in support of the controversial French weekly publication.

The WCC and its member churches expressed deep concern over reports of widespread violent demonstrations in Kinshasa since 19 January.

In the light of current global realities, representatives of the World Evangelical Alliance and the WCC met from 20 to 21 January to explore and discuss possible areas of future cooperation.

Challenged by Christians from Brazil to strive for greater respect for religious and cultural diversity, churches are reflecting together on the gospel of John as they celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The current issue of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly journal of the WCC, takes as its theme “Vatican II in Retrospect.”

The vision of Christian unity accompanied by respect for diversity has inspired this year’s prayer materials produced in Brazil for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Metropolitan Dr Gennadios of Sassima, vice-moderator of the WCC Central Committee, has been honoured with the title of “Doctor honoris causa” from the University of Athens, Greece.

As the WCC promotes the vision of a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”, four students from the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, share their understanding of justice and peace and how they embarked on a pilgrimage of their own.

In a shared recognition of the need to promote inter-religious dialogue in a world faced with conflicts often fuelled by religion, on 13 January the secretary general and officials from the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue visited the WCC offices and met with the general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Professor John Mbiti, theologian and former director of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey of the WCC has recently become the first African scholar to translate the entire Christian New Testament from Greek to Kikamba, a local Kenyan language.

Attacks last week on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, along with attacks on Paris police and shoppers at a Jewish grocery there, triggered vigorous reflections on freedom of expression, religious values and the role of churches in a WCC Communications Forum.

The WCC has expressed deep shock over the attacks by extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, which is said to have cost the lives of more than 2,000 people, including children used in suicide bomb attacks.

Reacting to news of the deaths of twelve persons in an armed attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches Georges Lemopoulos said: "The fatal attack that has taken place today in Paris against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is an attack on human life, human dignity and the human rights of all."

The newly published issue of Current Dialogue is now available online. Along with key documents from the WCC 10th Assembly, the issue includes several strong pieces addressing some thorny issues in contemporary inter-religious encounter and dialogue, including the recent Malaysian prohibition of Christian use of the name Allah for God, the relationship of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, the particular difficulties in dialogue among the Abrahamic traditions, and the limits of dialogue itself.