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In an act of solidarity with the 2.5 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe, private and hygienic lavatories, staff members of a number of church-related organizations based at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), queued in front of a symbolic "toilet door" for ten minutes on World Water Day, 22 March.

The first-ever Summit of High Level Religious Leaders on HIV and AIDS will be held in Den Dolder, Netherlands, from 22-23 March 2010. It aims to generate greater involvement from religious leaders of many of the world’s faiths in the global response to the pandemic.

On International Women's Day, 8 March, ecumenical leaders have urged churches to work to end violence against women in its many forms across the world.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "to ensure the immediate release" of Dr Alexis Montes and other 42 health workers detained by military and police forces on 6 February. Montes, a physician, is a long-time staff member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

The WCC general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, wrote a letter to Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, saying that the WCC was "saddened and distressed to receive the news from Uganda regarding a proposed law against homosexual individuals [...], which also proposes the death penalty to be meted to homosexual individuals who are HIV positive".

By Celia Deane-Drummond (*)

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)

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 Dr Manoj Kurian (*)

By Peter Kenny (*)

For one billion of the world population, "living with constant hunger" is "a normal state". However, there is nothing normal about that fact, which is "a result of the ways our societies have chosen to produce, share, buy and sell food".

The latest issue of the "Contact" magazine, jointly produced by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), addresses the current food price crises from various angles. A wide range of authors provide a broad perspective on the causes of the crisis and ideas for advocacy and action to counter it.

Communities have an important role to play when it comes to mental disorders. This was the unanimous view of experts who spoke at Geneva's Ecumenical Centre on Mental Health Day.

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.

"Evil, injustice, oppression, all of those awful things, they are not going to have the last word. Goodness, laughter, joy, caring, compassion, the things that you do and you help others do, those are going to prevail," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Geneva today.

By Walt Wiltschek (*)

The four newest titles in the WCC's "Risk Series" of books were introduced at a session with the authors Monday afternoon. Two of the four are by Zimbabwean author Ezra Chitando, looking at the HIV/AIDS issue in the African context. Chitando used body imagery to describe the call of the church to bring about transformation. Churches, he said, need to have sharp minds, ears to listen to the cries of the marginalized, warm hearts, healing hands, long arms, and quick feet. "Churches can only be relevant if they are bearers of hope, ambassadors of hope", he said. He emphasized that HIV/AIDS is a global problem, not just an African one. "We need to mobilise the entire global community", Chitando said. His books are titled "Living with Hope" and "Acting with Hope". The other two new books in the series are "Resisting the Intolerable", by Geneviève Jacques, which addresses the importance of human rights, and "With Hearts, Hands and Voices" by Margot Käßmann, examining "spirituality for everyday life".

Revised figures for the HIV epidemic which drop the estimated number of people living with HIV worldwide to about 33 million have been welcomed by church workers active in the response to HIV and AIDS around the world as a sign of hope and a challenge to keep promises. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) collected their views.