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By Theodore Gill*

The Rev. Jennifer Leath is a member the World Council of Churches Joint Consultative Group with the Pentecostals and ECHOS, the WCC commission of youth. She is a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the USA and identifies herself as “a Black American who lives in solidarity with those in the African Diaspora and all those who experience oppression, these are they who capture my heart.” Leath was one of the speakers at the 2011 WCC Central Committee plenary on “Ecclesiological Landscape”, where she shared a strong testimony on the issue of youth and ecumenical movement.  She was interviewed by Marcelo Schneider.

“There is no theological reflection that does not take place in God’s vulnerable world and in the midst of the joy and suffering of ordinary people,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in his report to the first meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee that he has addressed as general secretary.

Natividad Llanquileo is a young woman from the Mapuche people, an indigenous group that makes up some 4 percent of the Chilean population. In late November, she visited Geneva – seat of the United Nations Human Rights Council and other UN bodies – to inform the international organizations about the ongoing negotiations between the representatives of the Mapuche political prisoners and the Chilean government.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation seeks to promote spiritual values at the climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. After the Copenhagen summit's failure to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding treaty in 2009, this year's conference is anticipated by many with cautious hope.

At the 50th meeting since its foundation in 1946, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) decided to refocus, establishing four thematic working groups, in order better to respond to the needs of the member churches.

A common word on international economic practices has been spoken by representatives of Christian and Buddhist traditions who met in late August at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

A new inter-religious partnership for health will be kick-started at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in New York, 20-22 September.

With a new sense of urgency in view of a pandemic that grows exponentially, high level figures from many of the world's faiths have committed to exercise "stronger, more visible and practical leadership" in response to HIV, with an emphasis on eradicating the stigma and discrimination towards those affected.

The first-ever Summit of High Level Religious Leaders on HIV and AIDS will be held in Den Dolder, Netherlands, from 22-23 March 2010. It aims to generate greater involvement from religious leaders of many of the world’s faiths in the global response to the pandemic.

On the eve of the 22 September United Nations Summit on Climate Change representatives of faith communities around the world called on world leaders and on "all people of Earth to accept the reality of the common danger we face, the imperative and responsibility for immediate and decisive action and the opportunity to change."

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia was one of ten world religious leaders who signed a statement entitled "Faith in Human Rights" at an International Inter-religious Conference in The Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday, 10 December.

Despite having a constitution which does not allow discrimination and a proactive government working for the integration of the marginalized parts of society, violence and discrimination persist in some parts of India.

By Naveen Qayyum (*)

War-torn Sri Lanka is to receive the first of a series of ecumenical "living letters" teams which will visit Christian communities facing situations of violence in different regions of the world in the run up to the 2011 International Ecumenical Peace Convocation being organized by the World Council of Churches.