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In view of the current refugee crisis, European churches are being encouraged to deepen their efforts in receiving, supporting and protecting refugees who arrive in the region. This call was made in a letter issued jointly by the WCC, the Conference of European Churches and the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe.

In the wake of recent crisis with the refugees in Europe, it is “absolutely and critically necessary that all European states take their proper responsibility in terms of reception and support for people seeking refuge, safety and a better future for themselves and their families. This cannot be left only to the states where they enter first,” says the WCC general secretary.

Interview with the WCC general secretary, who is currently in Brasilia, about violence committed in the name of religion, human rights and climate justice in Brazil.

How do the many contemporary issues and challenges about gender relate to the newest conceptions of mission? Does mission as currently conceived help women, for example, or speak adequately to such widespread phenomena as gender-related violence? Is there a “gender imperative” for mission?

The WCC has joined over 30 leaders from major world religions and heads of global faith-based organizations today in launching a call to action to end extreme poverty by 2030, a goal shared with the World Bank Group.

In the light of current global realities, representatives of the World Evangelical Alliance and the WCC met from 20 to 21 January to explore and discuss possible areas of future cooperation.

Members of the WCC's Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network met in the Netherlands to develop a new statement with the working title "Gift of Being: Called to be a Church of All and for All". The new document is founded on the premise that persons with disabilities experience marginalization both in societies and in the church communities themselves.

A recent meeting of representatives from ecumenical organizations, Catholic, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches in Strasbourg, France has promised to address more effectively discrimination, persecution and violence faced by Christians around the world. This theme will be explored in depth through an international consultation to be held in 2015.

A WCC team met last week with religious leaders and community members in northern Iraq to assess the situation of heightened violence and displacement due to attacks by militants of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (IS).

At the Central Committee meeting of the WCC, leadership of the Council’s consultative bodies was announced. These bodies will steer through the work of the WCC in accomplishing the call from its 10th Assembly to engage in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”. The WCC assembly was held in the Republic of Korea in 2013.

While reflecting on the theme of the WCC upcoming assembly in Busan, Indian churches stressed the importance of celebrating life in fullness, vibrancy, dynamism and fervour irrespective of caste, creed, colour, class, gender or ethnicity.

The WCC general secretary has expressed solidarity with Bangladesh, and concern over recent tragedies in the country, including the loss of over a thousand lives in a garment factory accident near Dhaka, as well as increasing attacks against religious minorities.

For the first time in their history, the patriarch of the Antiochian Orthodox Church has asked the believers to adorn the traditional Palm Sunday processions with black ribbons tied on candles rather than the usual white ribbons expressing their sadness because of the two abducted church leaders from Aleppo, Syria.

Available now in four languages, a new online publication from the WCC invites parishes and congregations to explore the themes of Christian unity, justice and peace in advance of the upcoming WCC 10th Assembly.

Church representatives at a recent Oikotree Global Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa stressed the need to support peoples'€™ movements promoting justice in the economy and ecology, a concern, they say, that lies at the heart of the faith.

[Joint release with the Conference of European Churches (CEC)]

Citing the European churches’ “strong commitment over the past century to the ecumenical movement and fellowship in Europe,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit urged their direct engagement in the current financial and social crisis in and beyond Europe.

"The WCC can be and still is prophetic today,"€ said the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, reflecting on highs and lows in the ecumenical movement and on the identity of the WCC.

African theologian, renowned academic and ecumenist Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri has joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) as its new associate general secretary for Public Witness and Diakonia. She took on her new position at the WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, this month.

Death threats against human rights defenders in Colombia have caused "great concern" for the World Council of Churches (WCC). A letter from the WCC to the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, calls on the “government to take all necessary measures to effectively protect the life and physical integrity” of the human rights defenders.