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Thirty participants including migration activists, leaders of migrant churches and representatives of ecumenical organizations from Africa, Europe and the Middle East are currently seeking an ecumenical response to migration at a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference in Beirut, Lebanon.

An international study process developed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) is preparing a report on freedom of religion as a fundamental human right for all.

Violence against women is endemic both in conflict zones and so called peaceful situations. According to a study conducted by the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, more than 26 percent of women there experience physical violence throughout their adult life. In a country of a similar size but with fewer economic opportunities such as the Dominican Republic, every 36 hours a woman is killed by her partner or husband.

In a presentation to a gathering of experts on religious freedom and religious rights of minorities, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said there must be respect for the

Around 214 million people in the world are on the move, seeking livelihood and security outside their home countries. To address this global phenomenon of multi-directional migration, and respond to the political, economic, ethical and ecclesiological challenges it poses, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is organizing a regional conference in Lebanon from 5-7 December.

The first draft of a new mission statement for the World Council of Churches (WCC) was at the centre of a 5-day meeting recently held by the 25-member Commission for World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) on the campus of the University of Ghana near Accra.

The world has changed since 1958. In that year members of the International Missionary Council met in Achimota, Ghana and proposed to move their operation into the WCC, then one decade old.

Two international actions to curb the potential use of cluster bombs and nuclear weapons have been welcomed by the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Churches in Canada addressed challenging questions, with a strong interfaith perspective, while responding to the document “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Guidelines for Conduct” in an event held at the University of Toronto on 22 November.

More than forty participants from diverse Christian backgrounds gathered in Brazil, coming from several Latin American countries sought dynamic ways of ecumenical formation of diaconal work at a “Latin American Formation Seminar on Diakonia” which took place from 21-24 November.

“This is the only home we have,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu referring to the crucial significance of our planet and its survival. He was speaking in an interfaith rally in Durban, urging the United Nations conference on climate change (COP17) to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding treaty to address climate change effectively.

“We must continue to express our prophetic vision by reporting violation of human rights in God’s creation" said Rev. Nilton Giese, general secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), adding, “we must continue to dedicate ourselves to the task of theological and pastoral capacity building, inspired by prophetic and evangelical principles.”

While staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and sister organizations such as the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are preparing for the COP17 meeting for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa next week, the ecumenical community in Brazil is starting to think about 2012 when the UN conference Rio+20 will assess the outcomes of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

Considering climate change a “moral and spiritual crisis”, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, calls the COP17 United Nations conference on climate change a “last opportunity for the international community to be responsible in addressing climate change” and urges positive outcomes from the event.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has congratulated Rev. Atle Sommerfeldt, general secretary of the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), on being appointed bishop of Borg Diocese of the Church of Norway, admiring his contribution to the one ecumenical movement spanning several years, as well as conveying greetings on his 60th birthday on 22 November.

During the past year thousands of people from North Africa have disappeared in the Sinai Desert region while crossing the border between Egypt and Israel.

A broad group of World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches, inside and outside of Korea, were involved in a recent shipment of food aid to North Korea.

In preparation for becoming Ecumenical Centre tour guides, six students of Catholic theology from the University of Fribourg in central Switzerland, recently spent a day at the World Council of Churches (WCC) to seek deeper understanding of the modern ecumenical movement and the work of the WCC.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada was the site of a consultation on poverty, wealth and ecology that has issued a series of calls to action and reflection in a time of global financial crisis, environmental threat, and resistance to the ways of Wall Street and its allied economic structures. Representatives of North American churches urged their ecumenical and interfaith partners

By Mathews George Chunakara (*)