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It ended 100 years ago, and on 11 November, church leaders will remember World War One, praying and calling for reconciliation, despite a century passing since one of humanity’s most brutal conflicts.
From Flanders in Belgium to villages across France, the UK and Germany, bells will toll to remember.

Today, as the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches began its meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, we received news of another attack against our Coptic Christian sisters and brothers in Egypt.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit “received with joy” the news of the verdict which has resolved the long pending case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman convicted and sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws in 2010.

A call to make thanksgiving a priority amplified in South Sudan as the world’s newest nation celebrated the recently signed revitalised peace agreement in Juba city on 31 October.

The National Christian Council (NCC) in Japan and other faith-based groups in the nation have issued a joint statement regarding comments from Masahiko Shibayama, minister of education and science, about the “Imperial Rescript of Education.”

Archbishop Antje Jackelén, primate of the Church of Sweden, opened the ACT Assembly on 28 October in Uppsala with a sermon reflecting on the theme of the assembly, “Hope in action – putting people first.”

The third annual training of peace activists through the Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA) opened during an interfaith service at the headquarters of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) on 15 October.

What else could your family, your parish, your community do to respond to the needs of migrants and refugees arriving in your country? Representatives of many different churches met in Rome in September to discuss that practical question, as well as respond to the broader challenge of how people of faith can combat the rising tide of racism, xenophobia and nationalist policies that increasingly target vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers.

On 4 October, the South Sudan Council of Churches released a statement on the revitalized peace agreement as well as an action plan for peace through 2023.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomes the award of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to Ms Nadia Murad and to Dr Denis Mukwege for their work against “sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.

National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) general secretary Rev. Lee Hong Jung, invited by the South Korean presidential administration, attended the 3rd Inter-Korean Summit in Pyongyang in September with President Moon Jae-In as part of a 53-member delegation of South Koreans from various sectors of society.

As a Global Consultation on the Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women opened on 2 October, World Council of Churches (WCC) leaders offered words of encouragement and determination for the future.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will visit Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Antigua from 29 September-9 October. Tveit will be preaching, meeting with religious leaders and visiting communities.

Christian and Muslim religious leaders, together with Anglican and Greek evangelical churches, marked the International Day of Peace on 21 September in Cyprus by observing a Minute of Silence at noon.

At a global conference on xenophobia in Rome, a panel of four religious leaders from, respectively, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic traditions, spoke candidly about how xenophobia can sometimes be woven deeply into the fabric of these traditions.

Religious leaders and civil society representatives of different countries and diverse Christian churches gathered in Rome from 18-20 September to discuss the urgent task of combating the world’s increasing fear of so-called “strangers.”

The World Council of Churches is inviting its global fellowship and all people of good will to participate in the World Week of Peace in Palestine and Israel on 16-23 September.

Bishop Emeritus Munib Younan from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land accepted a “Building Bridges of Understanding” award on 12 September at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The award is organized by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Representing hope in the face of adversity, the Antioch Syrian University opened its doors on 8 September in Ma’arat Sednaya, about 20 km from Damascus.

At a time of increased divisions within churches and within rapidly changing societies, Christians are called, more urgently than ever before, to model the values of reconciliation, justice and peace. That’s why a group of theologians and church leaders from different denominations have been meeting near the German city of Augsburg to work together on two documents calling for much closer collaboration in the tasks of peace-building and the care of migrants and refugees.