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The following feature story is part of a series that continues this year’s Easter Initiative, which offers a glimpse into the daily lives of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, living in and around Jerusalem, some of the challenges they face, and what gives them hope. The concept of sacredness underscores these stories. Below, Sheikh Maher Assaf’s story, set in Bethlehem, speaks to the sacredness of worship, and how freedom of religion is key to achieving peace.

The following feature story is part of a series that begins this year’s Easter Initiative, which will offer a glimpse into the daily lives of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, living in and around Jerusalem, some of the challenges they face, and what gives them hope. The concept of sacredness underscores these stories. Below, Yacoub Rajabi’s story speaks to the sacredness of human dignity—and the sacredness of life itself.

A five-day online training workshop, “Achieving Racial Justice Through Human Rights Mechanisms,” from 21-25 February, drew over 30 participants from 13 different countries.

While the World Council of Churches (WCC) deeply appreciates peace-building efforts in South Sudan, the WCC is also calling attention to the dire circumstances in which the people of South Sudan are still forced to lead their daily lives.

After heads of churches in the Holy Land voiced their objections to a proposal to expand Jerusalem Walls National Park to include property owned by several churches in the city, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority announced on 21 February that it was backing down from the plan.

At the end of a 9 February press conference — which followed a long day of videoconference meetings — Dr Agnes Abuom and Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauce fielded a surprise question: what first got them involved in the ecumenical movement?

A recent webinar, “Voices from Bethlehem: Christian Unity in the Birthplace of Jesus,” organized by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome and the Methodist Liaison Office Jerusalem, offered a discussion of the importance of Christian unity in contemporary times in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.

One hundred and thirty Jewish volunteers planted 400 olive trees last week in Palestinian villages, continuing their work even following at least one violent attack.

An ecumenical leader in South Sudan has appealed to the world not to give up on his country, which during the first decade of its independence has repeatedly slid backward into political and ethnic violence.

From diverse regions and churches, hundreds of people drew together in 2021 to find ways to end child abuse. Through a campaign called “Out of the Shadows,” churches held workshops, trained champions, distributed materials, and augmented the drumbeat for awareness, buoyed by resources from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its partners.

As churches and other groups battle sexual and gender-based violence, it is urgent to include men in trainings and amplify the issues for global accompaniment and support, church women leaders, lay members and gender advocates recommended at a recent church human rights training in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Many women and girls are still struggling to attain their fundamental human rights, despite churches and the systems of the world affirming the equality of men and women, a church human rights training for young women and girls in Nigeria heard recently.

A webinar on 8 December, entitled “From Combatting Racism to Overcoming Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia: the Old and the New for the Present and the Future of Racial Justice,” publicly launched a new World Council of Churches (WCC) programme while commemorating the 50th anniversary of the WCC Progamme to Combat Racism.

A webinar on 6 December—last in an ongoing series— remembered past massacres in Europe. Panellists explored questions such as: How do we recognise these tragedies, and celebrate the survival, resistance, resilience, and heroes of these communities? How do we honour their martyrdom? What is done to prevent these victims from falling into amnesia or denial?

When Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, African Descent Lutheran Association national president, reflects on his experience as one of 18 participants from around the world to participate in the United Nations' Fellowship Programme for People of African Descent, he thinks of it as a unique opportunity to advocate for racial justice.

For the people of the Indonesian province of West Papua, human rights have significantly deteriorated throughout 2019 and 2020, as demonstrated by the latest biennial report issued by the International Coalition for Papua. In this context, the West Papuan Council of Churches issued a moral call to the international community on behalf of their people.