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At the 50th meeting since its foundation in 1946, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) decided to refocus, establishing four thematic working groups, in order better to respond to the needs of the member churches.

By Aneth Lwakatare (*)

A common word on international economic practices has been spoken by representatives of Christian and Buddhist traditions who met in late August at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

A new inter-religious partnership for health will be kick-started at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in New York, 20-22 September.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed a recent Turkish government decree allowing for a better protection of the rights of non-Muslim religious minorities in Turkey.

It was a deeply moving experience for the Living Letters team visiting Nigeria on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) when they gathered to pray around a mass grave in Dogonahawa, near Jos, in the Central Plateau State on Tuesday. About 323 locals murdered last March have been buried at the site.

Catholicos Aram I, head of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit met at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Switzerland, on 6 April. It was their first meeting since Tveit entered office in January 2010.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and Rev. Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met on 3 March, at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss common concerns around Christian unity.

"With great hope and deep satisfaction" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the news that a Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq has been established.

by Karen Burke (*)

Laws designed to empower and protect women in India have been described as “toothless” by activists who have spoken out against the government’s failure to implement them.

On the eve of the 22 September United Nations Summit on Climate Change representatives of faith communities around the world called on world leaders and on "all people of Earth to accept the reality of the common danger we face, the imperative and responsibility for immediate and decisive action and the opportunity to change."

Some forty-five religious, interfaith, and value-based organizations from five continents agreed to form a coalition to advance a "United Nations Decade for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding, and Cooperation for Peace." Coalition members expressed the hope that the UN Sixty-Fourth General Assembly, which will begin its deliberations in September 2009, will approve a resolution establishing such a decade from 2011-2020.

Roughly one in ten women attending the 53rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is part of Ecumenical Women, an international coalition of churches and ecumenical organizations.

By Henrik Hansson (*)

Leaders of Sri Lanka's Buddhist majority expressed divergent views on resolving the ethnic conflict in their country, while speaking to a delegation led by Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Jointly issued by the WCC and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

A recent dialogue held in late July at Yale University in the United States brought together Muslim and Christian scholars, intellectuals, academics and religious leaders from the United States and around the world. The event was one of a series of dialogues organized in response to the October 2007 open letter "A Common Word" sent by 138 Muslim scholars to Christians around the world. The letter invited them to dialogue about what they viewed as the common parts of their respective faiths.

Love for one's neighbour is "an essential and integral part of faith in God and love of God" for both Islam and Christianity. How Christians and Muslims can engage in reflections of this love together is the central theme of a commentary issued by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Thursday, 20 March. Compiled by Christian experts in Christian-Muslim relations, it addresses the churches and offers suggestions on responding to the widely noticed letter "A Common Word" by 138 Muslim leaders in October 2007.