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The Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) agreed to hold a mission event involving some 200 participants in mid-2012, in advance of the WCC 10th assembly to take place the following year.

The executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), meeting in Luebeck, Germany, 23-26 September 2008, reviewed programme, budget, and approved various public statements and reports and the extension of the contract of the current general secretary.

Representatives of ecumenical organizations meeting in advance of the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City vowed to launch a global campaign to help churches become competent in dealing with the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

Can religions do more in response to the AIDS pandemic? To address this question over 450 representatives of faith-based organizations currently responding to HIV and AIDS will gather in Mexico City, 31 July - 2 August, in advance of the XVII International AIDS Conference.

A wide array of justice movements around the world are challenging churches to create new kinds of spirituality that will sustain them as they struggle against empire.

"Papuans still are subject to torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and unfair trials by the Indonesian authorities," said the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme executive for human rights, Christina Papazoglou in a 14 March oral intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is currently holding its seventh session in Geneva. On behalf of the WCC, Papazoglou asked for a fact-finding mission to be sent to the Indonesian province of Papua, one of the word's richest in terms of natural resources, in order to raise the international awareness of the indigenous population's poor living conditions.

By Walt Wiltschek (*)

After 25 years standing vigil at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, a totem pole was returned to the soils of the earth Sunday at an event attended by many of those taking part in this week's central committee meetings. The totem was presented as a gift of the churches of Canada at the WCC's Sixth Assembly, held in Vancouver, as a way to raise the profile of indigenous people.  The totem consisted of carved images offering an interpretation of the story of humanity's search for the spiritual experience. But time and weather took its toll on the nearly 50 foot-tall totem since its placement at Bossey, and it had become unstable. Following advice from the First Nations of Canada, the WCC decided to respectfully remember the gift and the work of those who carved it. Rev. Carmen Lansdowne, a Central Committee member from the United Church of Canada and member of the indigenous people of western Canada, was asked to lead the commemoration. A small, permanent display will continue to tell the totem's story.

Joint release with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Council for World Mission

The legacies of the slave trade, and how churches can respond to past and present forms of slavery, are going to be discussed at an ecumenical conference to be held 10-14 December in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. About sixty theologians, church leaders, social scientists and activists, mainly from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean will gather in the country where nearly one million Africans and later indentured servants from Asia were exploited as human commodities and many more transited on their often deadly passage into slavery.

The bloody conflict in Northern Ireland, the crimes committed under the apartheid regime in South Africa and under communist rule in eastern Germany, mass killings perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia or by the Guatemalan military during a 35 year long civil war: the diverse cases of these nations and their struggles to cope with the legacies of massive human rights violations are at the heart of the 1-4 October ecumenical consultation "Healing of Memories - Reconciling Communities" in Dublin, Ireland, co-organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Irish School of Ecumenics.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed a resolution on rational use of medicines to be considered by the 60th World Health Assembly taking place in Geneva 14-23 May 2007.

Representing the experiences, perspectives and visions of different excluded groups, a select group of 25 theologians from many parts of the world gathered in La Paz, Bolivia during May 2007, perhaps for the first time, to articulate their visions of the world and the church. Their attempt was to identify the possible thematic directions for the new programme

Raising awareness about mental health among faith communities, sharing information on what they are doing in this area (best practice), and providing an ecumenical and inter-religious platform for learning on mental health in different regions will be the focus of WCC work on "mental health and faith communities" over the next few years.Â

High resolution photos available, see below

World AIDS Day is a unique moment each year when all of humanity is challenged to reflect on the way that HIV and AIDS affects us and how we can respond to the pandemic.

Every person living with HIV and AIDS should have access to the treatments made available by medical science and churches must advocate for this to happen, said the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee in a statement adopted at a meeting that ends today. The statement also challenges churches to a greater commitment in fighting the pandemic and welcoming positive people into their communities.

The global fund for tackling HIV and AIDS should be distributed through churches because they have the best access to the populations affected.

Dr Peter Piot, Bishop Mark Hanson, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, Rev. Rick Warren and his wife Kay, and Erik Sawyer are among speakers at ecumenical and interfaith pre-conferences taking place on the eve of the world's largest HIV/AIDS conference.

A collection of articles by HIV/AIDS authorities, experts and practitioners, the latest issue of the World Council of Churches (WCC) periodical on health issues, CONTACT, offers a comprehensive, state-of-the art overview of current issues and new technologies in the area of AIDS prevention targeted as much towards concerned church leaders and members as towards health professionals.