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Doing justice to the Palestinian people would bring about security for Israel, while delaying the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories feeds extremism and terrorism, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah told participants at a church conference for peace in Middle East yesterday.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is convening an international conference called "Churches together for Peace with Justice in the Middle East" in Jordan, 18-20 June. The event will address prospects for peace in Israel and Palestine and launch a new church advocacy forum.

Praying with Jerusalem's Christians, marching to the White House or sponsoring one of 14,609 olive trees are among the activities taking place in "International Church Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel" this week. The initiative is organized by member churches and related organizations of the World Council of Churches to mark 40 years of the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It involves public activities and messages to governments in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

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To highlight the urgency of peace in Palestine and Israel after 40 years of occupation, the World Council of Churches (WCC), member churches and related organizations are organizing a week of prayers, seminars and advocacy to mark this June's anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The goal of the week is to raise awareness in churches and civil society and to impress upon governments the need for new efforts to end the conflict and negotiate a just settlement.

Christian scholars from Europe and US will discuss peace, justice and security and how they relate to religion, spirituality and healing at an international ecumenical conference on "Forgiveness, peace and reconciliation" to be held 17-20 May 2007 in Volos, Greece. The current situations in Cyprus, Serbia, Russia, Ireland and the Middle East will be amongst case studies considered in a conference section on "Orthodoxy in situations of conflict".

"An untiring, credible and enlightened voice for peace" is how World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia refers to German physicist Prof. Dr Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in a tribute released today.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has strongly appealed to the government of Sri Lanka and the rebel organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) "to return to the obligations" of a February 2002 ceasefire agreement that both have violated, and to "seek durable solutions to end the fighting that is affecting the lives of so many people".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has expressed "deep sorrow" over "this new horror of random violence" that took place at Virginia Tech University. To his prayers for the families and the wounded, he adds international church concern for more effective regulation of firearms.

Once again on Friday, 21 September, less than six months from now, churches and communities will be invited to observe an International Day of Prayer for Peace.

Concrete plans to mobilize churches around the world for peace were approved by the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee in early March. What is expected to become a major worldwide mobilization of churches for peace will culminate with an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation to be held in early May 2011 and an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace.

In a statement for the fourth anniversary on 19 March of the invasion of Iraq, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia warns of "further carnage and destruction" because "the sponsors of this tragic war insist on carrying on military pursuits".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is launching an international, inter-church advocacy initiative for peace in Israel and Palestine - the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum - at a conference June 17-21, 2007, in Jordan.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee has expressed worries about the "deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea", while encouraging the establishment of a "joint Christian and Muslim Peace Committee for Somalia".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee has expressed appreciation for the establishment of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, and urged WCC member churches to encourage and support its efforts.

"Make me a channel of your peace" was the theme for a celebration of common commitment to overcome violence at a gathering of Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church representatives on 17 February in Wittenberg, Germany.

The international community's responsibility to protect endangered populations when their governments fail to do so - if necessary, by the use of force - and church support for such measures was the subject of a lively debate at a World Council of Churches (WCC) workshop at the 20-25 January World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.

In a message to all the Palestinian people, Jerusalem church leaders alarmed at worsening relations between two main political parties are calling for an end to violence and an urgent return to the "real priorities" of Palestinians. The plan is to work with Jerusalem's top Islamic leaders on a similar Christian-Muslim message as well.

"The cross calls us not to glorify, but to attend to the suffering in the world and to struggle for its elimination," said the participants of a theological consultation on cruelty organized by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The conference took place 5-8 December in Puidoux, Switzerland.