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The Church of South India, Green Anglicans and other groups are sharing creative ways to observe a “carbon fast" during the Lenten season. A carbon fast challenges people to examine their daily actions and reflect on how they impact the environment. The carbon fast campaigns are designed so that, over Lent, people can take small steps to reduce carbon dioxide output with the hope of helping the environment and bringing the world one step closer to a sustainable existence.

The Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI) is one of the largest Baptist groups in India, including 1.2 million members in 7,263 congregations. The CBCNEI officially became a WCC member church in July. Rev. Dr Solomon Rongpi, general secretary of the CBCNEI, spoke to WCC news about the CBCNEI’s decision to join the WCC.

Hope in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace formed the integral thread for proceedings at the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Trondheim, Norway this week. The 2016 meeting took place 22-28 June, the second gathering since the Central Committee was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

Churches are engaged at the grassroots level throughout the world in the response to HIV and AIDS, but the struggle against the disease and those stigmatized for being HIV positive needs to continue, say church leaders.

From Paris to Pakistan, Orlando to Myanmar, Iraq to Nigeria, each day witnesses conflict and violence perpetrated in the name of religion or committed against persons because of their religious identity.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed three new member churches to the ecumenical fellowship and also admitted two others to interim membership status.

The action, taken by the WCC Central Committee at its June 20-28 meeting in Trondheim, Norway, expands the number of member churches to 348.

In 1982, shortly after Dr Sasiprabha Stanley married, she traveled with her husband to Odisha, in eastern India, to a village called Champakenda. “That was the first time I stepped into another state where I did not know the language. I was a foreigner, simply sitting and watching the women.”

On the 28th Quadrennial Assembly of the National Council of Churches in India, held in Jabalpur from 27-30 April, Rev. Dr Sang Chang, WCC president for Asia, urged Indian churches to commit themselves afresh to the task of building just and inclusive communities.

A gathering hosted by the National Council of Churches in India on 26 April allowed 50 participants to deliberate on the World Council of Churches statement “Economy Of Life: An Invitation To Theological Reflection and Action.”

Between 7-27 March, more than 100 images with the hash tag #7Weeks4Water were posted by Instagram users who joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) contest. Most of them told stories about water justice, illustrating the Lenten campaign “Seven Weeks for Water,” promoted by the WCC Ecumenical Water Network annually since 2008.

As WCC programme executive for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, Rev. Dr Peniel Rajkumar describes himself as a bridge between WCC member churches and Eastern Religions, in particular the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions.

A small diaspora congregation of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church observed the Joint Ecumenical Sunday of the Communion of Churches in India (CCI) in Geneva on 24 January.

The ecumenical movement is mourning the passing on 27 December in Thiruvananthapuram, India of His Eminence the Rt Rev. Dr Zacharias Mar Theophilus, Suffragan Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church.

Climate-induced loss and damage is one of the key points being raised by faith groups during COP21. A discussion panel and a demonstration held at COP21 in early December brought to light many facets of this issue.

Some 200 people from Japanese churches and minority right networks as well as overseas partners, gathered for an international conference on minority issues and mission at the Korean YMCA in Tokyo.

The Church of South India has witnessed the grand inauguration function of the Ninth Consultation of the United and Uniting Churches more than 50 years ago as India was attaining independence.

The general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, sent greetings to Hindu religious partners across the world on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Diwali.

“It is with great sadness that we have received the shocking news of the sudden death of Bishop Taranath Sunanam Sagar,” wrote the WCC general secretary in a letter of condolence addressed to the bishop’s widow and family, members of the Methodist Church in India and the National Council of Churches of India.

The centenary of the birth of the late ecumenical leader and Indian theologian Dr M.M. Thomas (1916–1996) was celebrated in a seminar at his home state in Kerala, India.

Dynamics of “indigenous ecological spiritualties and Christian faith” were explored at a WCC seminar in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.