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“Financing for sustainable development represents the expression of an ethic of solidarity and sharing, including with generations that come after us and who will inherit whatever good or evil we have wrought”, said Peter Prove, director of International Affairs at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in a symposium at the United Nations headquarters, in New York, on 29 January.

Dealing with people on the move is crucial to the work of the Church in the 21st century says Greek Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Filadelfia. More than 31,000 irregular migrants arrived in Greece by sea in 2018 and almost 17,000 arrived by land, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned an attack on a bus in Egypt carrying tourists on Friday near the Giza Pyramids, killing four Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide. The blast wounded 11 other Vietnamese tourists as well as the Egyptian driver.

WCC News met with the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dr Alexi Chehadeh, who leads the Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East in Damascus, Syria. He is an impressive role model and peacemaker in Syria.

‘History’ and ‘Time’ were the thirteenth and fourteenth subjects covered in a workshop which took place in Erlangen, Germany, 12-14 December as part of a project “Key Concepts in Interreligious Discourses.”

On 14-16 December, the Conference of European Churches and Cumberland Lodge in the UK will host an Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights with the theme “Towards Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities.”

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit hosted a lunch on 12 December in gratitude to the services rendered by the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura at the Château de Bossey with ambassador Heidi Grau, Head of the human security division at the Swiss FDFA, and the UN and WCC teams on Syria.

Respect for the other lies at the heart of peace education and was a key thread through a debate entitled “Education for Peace in a multi-religious world”. It was held on the 2018 World Human Rights Day at the United Nations Office in Geneva.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved on 14 November the formal statement, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love,” a pastoral letter against racism.

“I didn’t have any document that says who I am, so I started to look for answers that would help me to understand the real definition of my condition as a stateless person”, said Maha Mamo in a video interview published by World Council of Churches communications.

A Roundtable for Peace on the Korean Peninsula convened in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) on 8-12 November, building on decades of progress by the Korean Methodist Church, United Methodist Church, and World Methodist Council, as well the Korean Christian Federation and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Today, as the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches began its meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, we received news of another attack against our Coptic Christian sisters and brothers in Egypt.

The Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) organized a series of meetings between church leaders from North America and United Nations experts on racial justice issues in New York City on 29-31 October.

The International Commission for Anglican–Orthodox Theological Dialogue released a communiqué after a meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus from 13-20 October.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed heartfelt sympathies to the Tree of Life synagogue and to the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) after a gunman shot and killed 11 people and injured several others during a baby naming ceremony on 27 October.

A Jerusalem administrative appeals court on 17 October invalidated a decision by the state to bar entry into the country of Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Last week the 2,000-day mark since the abduction of two Syrian archbishops was passed. Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi haven’t been heard from since gunmen kidnapped them outside Aleppo in April 2013, almost five and a half years ago.

The World Council of Churches is mourning the passing of Metropolitan Bishoy of Damietta, Kafr El-Sheikh, Barary, and the Monastery of Saint Demiana of the Coptic Orthodox Church. One of the senior and most influential Coptic Orthodox Prelates of the modern era, he has made extensive contributions in the areas of Pan-Orthodox unity, dialogue and ecumenism. He was a close colleague of the late Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

Christians have a moral responsibility to speak out and teach people to say no to racism, xenophobia, exclusion and discrimination.

At a global conference on xenophobia in Rome, a panel of four religious leaders from, respectively, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic traditions, spoke candidly about how xenophobia can sometimes be woven deeply into the fabric of these traditions.