Search results

Leaders and representatives of 24 US churches gathering in Washington, D.C. next week will deliver a message to President-elect Barack Obama, outlining hopes for the new administration in leading the nation forward and working for peace with justice.

After six days of intense discussions on migration, the conflict in Sri Lanka and climate change, of common prayer and practical efforts to make the voice of the churches on these issues heard at the United Nations, the UN Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ended with good results on Friday.

At the 16-21 November United Nations Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Christians from the Pacific islands have appealed for worldwide solidarity with regard to climate change, a question of life and death in their communities.

The Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) has launched its 2009 focus on the Caribbean region with the theme: "One Love: Building a Peaceful Caribbean".

An international ecumenical delegation of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in Haiti from 24 to 28 November. The team will visit the capital Port-au-Prince and areas affected by recent hurricanes.

"Imagine: Peace" is a collection of liturgical resources for the four Sundays of Advent. It is the first of a collection of worship materials from different regions of the world, prepared in the framework of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation 2011 .

Religious freedom and interreligious dialogue will be on the agenda of an international ecumenical delegation visiting Pakistan from 24 November to 1 December. The group will discuss how churches can help ease political and religions tensions with representatives from churches, the Muslim community and government officials.

By Annegret Kapp (*)

As many Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Advent and Christmas in the security of their homes and communities, they are invited to pray for justice, peace and security for Palestine and Israel - and to send a prayer or a peace message to Bethlehem (at the following address: aei (at) p-ol.com ).

Straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, is the small island country of Kiribati.  The vast majority of its 33 coral atolls never exceed three meters above sea level, making Kiribati's 94,000 inhabitants vulnerable to a rare danger: their country is sinking. Â

"Please remind the world that we are no longer at war," a high-ranking government official from Sierra Leone told an international ecumenical team visiting churches and ecumenical organizations in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2 to 8 November.

"As Christians, we are called to stand with those who are victims of oppression, poverty or violence," Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Public Witness said in advance of the WCC's United Nations Advocacy Week, 16 to 21 November in New York.

A delegation of church leaders from Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo has set out to meet the presidents of the latter two countries in order to convey them a strong message in favor of peace.

To achieve reconciliation takes nothing less than the transformation of society, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said in Managua, during a 2-5 November visit to Nicaragua.

Not only the Pacific islands and their inhabitants, but also "the Northern circumpolar areas and the people living there are already suffering from the effects of the changing environment", according to the participants of a 28-30 October seminar organized by the Council of Christian Churches in the Barents Region. Â

Â

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged the citizens of the world's more privileged nations to insist on emission cuts, in a video message that was recently posted on the online platform youtube.

In Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa, churches have played a major role in reconciliation between groups who had been in violent conflict with each other for decades. Two international ecumenical teams sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) will visit the three countries during the next two weeks.

An international ecumenical delegation led by the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, will visit Nicaragua from 2 to 5 November.

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)