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With prayers, singing, gifts and speeches of thanks, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee offered its farewell to outgoing general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia on Sunday 30 August.

“Tears are not enough.” Fernando Enns spoke that phrase in introductory remarks to the World Council of Churches central committee on 28 August. It was repeated several times during a morning plenary session on the WCC’s upcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC).

World Council of Churches general secretary-elect Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit was asked on Friday to outline his vision for the organization. He didn’t have to look far for inspiration.

Norwegian theologian and pastor Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 48, was elected 7th general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Thursday 27 August during its Central Committee meeting. Tveit will be the youngest general secretary since Willem A. Visser 't Hooft who had led the WCC while it was in process of formation and following its founding assembly 61 years ago.

Central committee members will choose between three potential sites for the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, to be held in 2013: Busan, South Korea; Damascus, Syria; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, in his moderator’s address at the start of the World Council of Churches central committee meeting in Geneva on 26 August, said that the WCC – as well as the world at large – stands “at a crossroads in the present”.

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia sounded notes of hope as he delivered his final address as general secretary to the World Council of Churches central committee on 26 August.

Visitors to the website of the World Council of Churches (WCC) are now being welcomed by a fresh, simplified look and a new homepage, designed to give an immediate feel of the identity and values of the organization.

Christian and Muslim leaders from Western Africa have called on the followers of their two religions "to complement each others efforts for peace in society and peaceful co-existence" among the faith communities at a meeting organized by the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA) in Accra, Ghana, 24 July 2009.

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Any solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must engage the whole nation – not just the eastern region where violence is centred, a small ecumenical team visiting the Bas Congo and Kasai Oriental provinces has learned.

William J. Schmidt, a Presbyterian theologian and ecumenical historian who often volunteered to serve as a public face of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at church assemblies, died on Monday 10 August 2009 following a lengthy illness. His wife of more than 60 years, Jean Schmidt, spent her career as financial officer of the WCC’s office in New York. Following their retirement, Bill and Jean Schmidt regularly served as managers of exhibitions on the work of the WCC and the US national council of churches at conferences and conventions of their member churches.

As the world faces an "unprecedented situation of increasing violence, proliferation of non-state armed groups, and non-international armed conflicts", the "effective compliance with the Geneva Conventions" appears as an "urgent priority", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. In a public statement marking the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, Kobia stressed that "the complexity of today's armed conflicts" requires the international community "to think of new ways to strengthen effective mechanisms to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions".

Religious diversity is an unavoidable reality today – and an opportunity, according to the participants of an interfaith seminar held in July at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey outside Geneva, Switzerland.

Participants in Christian-Muslim deliberations on conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa are "convinced… that religious leaders have a role and mandate in contributing towards [the] peace and reconciliation process in the region". They have called for "a wider regional peace conference for religious leaders from the Horn of Africa" to be convened by December 2009. Meanwhile, they ask for people of faith to join in prayer as well as in initiatives for spiritual renewal, humanitarian assistance and peace.

An international ecumenical team that visited Honduras on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) has encouraged the churches in Honduras to "accompany the people in their search for peace with justice and the re-establishment of democracy".

"Ecumenical and international support for the United Church of Canada (UCC) in its on-going work for peace with justice in Israel-Palestine" was expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. In a letter sent today to the leaders of the church, as it begins its 2009 General Conference in Kelowna, Canada, Kobia states: "This is a cause the UCC has faithfully supported. It is one in which your efforts to speak truth to power and to discern just solutions with love have inspired other member churches of the WCC."

The more radical social and political changes are, the more likely they are to bring out tension amongst social actors. It is in a context such as this - a Living Letters delegation visiting Bolivia in mid July heard - that Bolivian churches struggle to overcome violence in society.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia urged the Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to "ensure the safety of all citizens" as well as seeing that "all perpetrators [of] acts of violence and human rights violations are brought to justice".

The World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia appealed to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari to "ensure the safety and security" of Christians in the Punjab province, where three attacks against Christian communities were carried by militant Islamic groups in the last two months. He demanded that the government "take necessary actions against the perpetrators".