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The increasingly influential role of the financial sector, its impact on communities and their struggles toward a just financial system remained the focus of discussions in the workshops organized by the churches at the World Social Forum.

The social and ecological cost of expanding mineral exploration and extraction was highlighted by churches at the World Social Forum.

Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, the WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society, called on the movement of Christian students to reclaim its radical transforming nature towards a “pilgrimage of gender justice”.

The WCC president for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rev. Gloria Ulloa, has participated at the 35th Assembly of the World Student Christian Federation. The event is currently underway in Bogotá, Colombia, until 5 March.

Christine Housel, general secretary of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), in an introductory speech, has expressed her hope that the 35th General Assembly of the WSCF may offer better understandings of justice and peace issues.

The WCC mourns the death of Leopoldo J. Niilus, former director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), renowned lawyer, peace negotiator and author of several writings on human rights and international affairs.

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.

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 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.

Climate justice has been the focal point of the WCC advocacy strategy at 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which concluded on 12 December in Lima, Peru.

Care for creation and affirmation of faith values in addressing the impact of climate change were highlighted in a number of initiatives organized by members of the WCC in Lima, Peru. The capital is hosting the 20th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The adverse impact of business activities on the lives of members of the local population in Colombia and El Salvador was highlighted by the WCC-sponsored participants at the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Participants in a recent WCC consultation in Myanmar have stressed the need to equip churches and ecumenical organizations to build peace, human security and human dignity in order to move beyond conflicts, towards a world of peace.

Members and partners of the WCC are all set to promote climate justice from a faith-based perspective as United Nations climate talks begin in Lima, Peru.

Young students from the Mexico’s Student Christian Movement “MEC por la Equidad” and the World Student Christian Federation in Latin America and the Caribbean have called upon churches, ecumenical bodies and the international community to show support for the families of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, who went missing following a student protest in Iguala, Mexico, on the evening of 26 September.

Uruguayan member churches of the WCC are collaborating with the national government there to relocate and settle refugees from the conflict in Syria.

In significant events last week, the Evangelical Church of the River Plate and the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, two member churches of the WCC, held leadership elections while reflecting on issues of diversity, communion and challenges posed by the emerging contexts of urban life in the region.

Rev. Dr Ester Pudjo Widiasih has recently been appointed as programme executive for spiritual life at the WCC. Widiasih, who comes from the Javanese Christian Churches in Indonesia, is experienced in the field of church music and worship.

The theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace” has triggered robust discussions on furthering cooperation among Christian communication organizations in a seminar sponsored by the WCC. The seminar was held at the biannual assembly of the Latin American and Caribbean Agency of Communication in Argentina.