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The first ever action plan specifically designed to enable religious leaders to prevent incitement to violence - the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes - was launched on 14 July by Secretary-General António Guterres at a meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In a moving worship service on 8 July in Bethanienkirche, Leipzig, Germany, a pastor from North Korea Rev. Kang Myong-chol, Chair of the Korean Christians Federation and a pastor from South Korea Rev. Kim Young-ju, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea presided over Holy Communion together, closing a meeting that underscored the need for urgent ecumenical responses to the dangerously escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

As a WCC-convened forum on peace on the Korean Peninsula came to a close, participants from around the world, representing many churches, vowed to work together in accompanying the Christians of North and South Korea in their efforts for peace, reconciliation, and development.

As a retired person in his late 60s, Frederick “Fred” Rainger often asks himself: ”what can I stop doing?” His days are filled with engagements in community activities and it hasn’t gotten any less busy since he became more involved in the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN), a network of Australian Christians seeking lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel.

Friday evening when the leaders of the G20 states will be meeting in Hamburg and discussing global economic, social, environmental and political issues, the churches in Germany are inviting people in Germany and all over the world to a common peace prayer.

Around 60 participants from Christian churches all over the world gathered in Beit Sahour for peace consultations two weeks ago.

The World Council of Churches' (WCC) popular YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) programme has a new online learning component that adds four weeks of intensive training to two weeks of residential learning. When 35 young men and women from 14 different countries meet at the Jakarta Theological Seminary in Indonesia on 8 July, they will already have a familiarity with the major religious traditions found in Asia, thanks to their online studies.

The World Council of Churches reiterates (WCC) the urgent appeal issued by its Executive Committee in June for “all states engaged in the perilously escalating military confrontation in the [Korean] region to refrain from further escalation and to pursue instead initiatives to reduce tensions and to create a window for new dialogue initiatives.”

Banning nuclear weapons is something like climbing a mountain. The summit of this mountain – agreement on a ban treaty – is now clearly in view at United Nations negotiations in New York.

“In the face of escalating confrontation and heightened risks of catastrophic conflict” on the Korean peninsula, the World Council of Churches has urged that “a paradigm shift in approaches to the resolution of the geopolitical challenges of the region is urgently needed.”

Climate justice isn't a policy that can simply be thrown away by any president - it’s a moral decision that affects the well-being of millions of people and future generations across the world. Thousands of people are communicating this message via statements, posts and tweets on social media, and even with earnest conversations with their neighbors. Many are from the WCC fellowship, humanitarian groups, churches and communities, and they are bringing a clear - and unified - voice of justice after US President Donald Trump announced on 2 June that his nation would leave the Paris climate accord.

The ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches, call for a prioritization of climate justice as US President Donald Trump issues executive order withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. They express deep dismay at this development, which goes against global commitments to address climate change.

Reconciliation was once primarily seen as a message of the church but is now used by secular leaders trying to establish peace in communities torn by conflict and war, the WCC president for Africa, the Rev. Mary Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, has said at a major Protestant gathering in Germany.

Worsening global inequality is borne out as more people face famine now than any other time in modern history. Fr Nithiya Sagayam, national coordinator of the Association of Franciscan Families of India, is gravely concerned that the global response to extreme poverty is too low in almost every country while, he says, “corporations continue to grow richer and richer.”

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s countries have now begun negotiations to ban nuclear weapons. One-hundred-thirty-two governments from all regions took part in the first-ever such talks at the United Nations on 27-31 March. There is concerted opposition to the talks from nuclear-armed governments and their allies.

On 15 March, during the 61st session of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Ecumenical Women (EW) organized a public witness event at the Tillman Chapel at the Church Center of the UN (CCUN) to mobilize faith communities and civil society to work in solidarity to end gender-based violence.

Members of a church-backed coalition have called on Indonesia to open access to West Papua for international journalists, independent observers, human rights organizations and the International Red Cross.

Expressing concern regarding recently announced US measures related to refugee admissions and entry into the US by seven Muslim-majority countries, the World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance (ACT), and The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) affirmed that faith calls all Christians to love and welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced person - “the other.”

On 17-23 November, the Executive Committee of the WCC met for the first time ever in China. The visit was hosted by the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is a Protestant church in the People's Republic of China, as well as one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world.

When the WCC joined the Blue Communities Project on 25 October, water and eco-justice advocates from around the world offered congratulations, while at the same time urging WCC member churches to join the quest for global water and sanitation rights.