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By Celia Deane-Drummond (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has asked the United Nations secretary-general to make sure that recommendations of a key report about war crimes committed during the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces in Gaza at the beginning of 2009 are properly followed up.

By Walter Altmann (*)

"Profound sorrow" and "most sincere condolences" for the passing away of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, the spiritual leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, were expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. Patriarch Pavle died on Sunday, 15 November, at the age of 95.

As nations are spelling out their bargaining positions for the negotiations on a new international climate deal to take place in Copenhagen next month, churches around the world are trying to ring home the message that climate protection is an ethical and spiritual issue.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to hold bilateral talks within the context of resumed Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

Resettlement of people displaced by the consequences of climate change was highlighted as a major concern for churches at a gathering of ecumenical representatives from Asia and the Pacific region.

Interview by Martin Hoegger (*)

Church representatives from around the world will gather in New York City 15-20 November to press three issues within the agenda of the United Nations: peoples being displaced by climate change, indigenous people's rights and Colombia's protracted internal conflict.

A joint Muslim-Christian statement condemning domestic violence was published by the Islamic Council of Norway and the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations on 9 November 2009.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has said "there are growing expectations that meaningful progress can be made as a result of the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Copenhagen next month ", but "sacrifices will have to be made by all". The remarks were part of a speech on " Saving the Soul of the Planet " Bartholomew gave in Washington, D.C. as part of a two-and-a-half week visit to the United States.

By Stephen Brown (*)

Twenty years ago in East Germany, "Christian hope and perseverance contributed significantly to the fall of the Berlin Wall", said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. Commenting on the 20th anniversary of the event that brought to an end the "cold war era", Kobia stressed: the people who "gathered in the churches and became the nucleus for the movement of change […] taught us that Christian faith can inspire a resistance movement against fatalism and despair - a lesson which is as important today as it was twenty years ago".

By Konrad Raiser (*)

Jointly issued by WCC, CEC, NCCUSA and CCC

An international ecumenical delegation has urged stronger action against human rights abuses in Honduras at a meeting with the general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) and representatives of the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., 22-23 October.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has congratulated Bishop Dr Margot Kässmann on her election as chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In a 28 October letter to Kässmann, Kobia highlighted her "exceptional participation" and "many years of commitment […] to ecumenism and to the WCC", and expressed the conviction that under her leadership the EKD will "continue to flourish and be a significant actor in German society in the years to come".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has congratulated Rev. Martin Junge on his election as general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Expressing "joy and encouragement" at the election of the Chilean theologian to the LWF's chief executive post, Kobia called him a "champion of lively partnerships in the quest for Christian unity and the building of human community".

Nearly 140 leaders from the world's churches, North and South Koreans among them, have called for the formation of an inter-Korean confederation even before complete reunification of Korea can take place. Agreement was reached at the close of a three-day meeting in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong where the Christian leaders expressed unrelenting hope for peace and reconciliation among Koreans, despite the stark realities of the ongoing division of the Korean peninsula.