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Upon hearing news that Church of the Brethren leader Lawan Andimi was executed by Boko Haram on 20 January, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned the brutal act of violence and expressed his sincere condolences to Rev. Andimi's family, community and church.

Young African clergy, theologians and laypersons are eager to engage with the challenging issues facing their continent and the world. This became clear in a recent essay competition for authors below 35 years by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC).

Two workshops in Nigeria and Tanzania organized by local church councils in collaboration with the World Council of Churches (WCC), All Africa Conference of Churches, and UNICEF consolidated the partnership on ending sexual violence against children.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, together with its campaigners in West Africa, held a regional forum for members of the Economic Community of West African States as well as civil society organisations in Abuja, Nigeira from15-16 August.

A workshop co-facilitated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the South Sudan Council of Churches in South Sudan on 1-3 May drew 18 people to explore resources churches use to aid in trauma healing. Participants also discussed potential common approaches that could unite churches in their response to people faced with trauma.

Church and related organizations’ response to food crises globally may need to be strengthened following the findings of a new report which projects millions of people will be without food due climate change, conflict and insecurity.

A group of churches from Germany’s west inspired by the quest for justice and peace presented an ecumenical exhibition showing how “Peace takes a different way” at the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

On the sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, top UN officials, religious leaders and environmental experts underlined the role of faith communities in tackling climate change, a phenomenon that threatens to annihilate humanity.

Women in Liberia participated in the Thursdays in Black campaign by staging a peaceful demonstration in the streets of Margibi County against the growing waves of violence against women and girls.

The WCC-EHAIA programme organized a workshop on 27-29 November during which young people in Nigeria could highlight positive masculinity and femininity.

In advance of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) assembly, its members reflected on the economic and spiritual challenges in the nation last week.

Last month, three members of Nigeria’s Christian community spoke to Government representatives in Geneva, spotlighting the challenges that children, and particularly girls, face in their society. Their meetings took place ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of their country, at the United Nations this week.

On 6 November, Rev. Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Nigerian Baptist Convention, offered a morning prayer about “Empowering Our Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace through Love" during the WCC Executive Committee meeting in Uppsala, Sweden.

“The seeds of peace come from the ground.” That is the vision that Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, former director of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches and now president of OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership, tries to follow with his organization.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit offered a warm congratulations to the primate of The Church of the Lord, Aladura, Worldwide, an African initiat-ed church founded in 1925.

On 21 September, an event unfolded in Liberia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the WCC. Held in conjunction with other civil society organizations observing the International Day of Peace in Monrovia, people gathered for a ceremony and a parade.

Each year students from all over the world arrive at Bossey near Geneva for a three-month language training course to pave their way for ecumenical studies that follow on straight after. “The title captures the goal of the course,” says Father Lawrence Iwuamadi, the Nigerian priest who studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is academic dean of the Ecumenical Institute.

“Congratulations for being a student at Bossey!” Fr Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, director of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey and deputy general secretary, welcomed the students for the new academic year 2018-2019. Thirty-one students from diverse countries and traditions will start their classes at the ecumenical institute on Tuesday.

Interfaith consultation on positive masculinities and femininities with adolescents and young people in Abuja, Nigeria brought together more than fifty religious leaders, theologians, people living with HIV, adolescents and young people, teachers, health professionals, media persons and government officials for frank conversation.

Fifty adolescents, young people, teachers, theologians, health professionals, people living with HIV and religious leaders met in Abuja from 22-26 May to discuss positive masculinities and femininities in faith communities.