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Peace as a universal human right has been the focus of an international congress co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The WCC worked in collaboration with the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law (SSIHRL), Forum 2010 and the Institute for Peace Studies (Alexandria, Egypt) to organize the International Congress on the Human Right to Peace, held on 9-10 December 2010 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

By Aneth Lwakatare (*)

A World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation on ecumenical accompaniment in Colombia was held in Geneva on 2-3 December. Participants affirmed the ecumenical commitment to strengthen the peace process in Colombia. The consultation decided to explore ways to initiate an international ecumenical accompaniment programme in Colombia as a contribution to the Colombian peace process.

Members of the WCC delegation attending the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 16) in Cancun, together with other delegates and members of local parishes, participated at an inter-religious celebration organized by Caritas Mexico and the WCC. The event was held on Saturday 4 December at the Church of the Risen Christ in Cancun and took as its motto “United in prayer: United for the creation that needs us”.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, met in a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Saturday for nearly a quarter of an hour. The two church leaders discussed a number issues including visible church unity and the situation of Christians in the Middle East. "We had a very open and friendly conversation," Tveit said after the audience. "He emphasized in a very kind and also a very strong way the importance of the World Council of Churches' work and the ministry I am called to do as general secretary."

“Your presence here is a sign that we are not alone in these times of massive human rights violations,” Fr Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), told a delegation of Christians from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Europe and Africa on Thursday 2 December.

By Tara Tautari *

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has said that "force and military power will not resolve the problems" in a 24 November statement issued as an expression of concern over tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

An international team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in the Philippines from 1 to 5 December. It will be the last in a series of "Living Letters" visits to various countries organized ahead of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May 2011, in order to accompany people and churches who long for peace, security and reconciliation in the midst of conflicts and violence.

Jointly issued by WCC and WCRC

People around the globe are called to put their names and faces behind the call for strong international action on climate change. An international coalition of Christian organizations is organizing a photo petition that will bring the messages of all those who care for creation to the United Nations climate talks.

The leaders of the World Council of Churches and World Evangelical Alliance came together recently to say their organizations and member churches are speaking with a common voice when it comes to the January 2011 referendum in Sudan.

An international consultation on Muslim-Christian relations ended with a "call for the formation of a joint working group which can be mobilized whenever a crisis threatens to arise in which Christians and Muslims find themselves in conflict" today in Geneva, Switzerland.

Christian and Muslim leaders and scholars meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, site of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central offices today issued a joint statement of condemnation for the criminal attack on the Church of Our Lady of Najat (Sayidat al-Nejat) in Baghdad this past Sunday, 31 October.

The World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has condemned the "criminal act of terror" Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq, when gunmen took hostages in the Sayidat al-Nejat Church. The death toll from the hostage standoff rose to some 58 people on Monday, including priests, women and children and Iraqi security forces who conducted a raid to end the siege.

Naming casteism as "sin, apostasy and rebellion against God", churches in India have committed themselves to serve as "zero tolerance zones" for caste-based discrimination. They also called for Lent 2011 to be "a time of purging caste" from Christian communities.

High-ranking Muslim and Christian leaders as well as renowned scholars and interfaith practitioners, representing various Islamic and Christians organizations, will gather 1-4 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for an international consultation on Christian and Muslim concerns.

Has Dalit theology reached an impasse since its early burst of creative energy in the late eighties and early nineties? This is the question that a new publication entitled "Dalit Theology in the Twenty-First Century: Discordant Voices, Discerning Pathways" seeks to address.

In a message concerning the recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, World Council of Churches general secretary, said the prize this year shows a strong message of support to all those around the world who are struggling for freedom, development and the dignity of all human beings.

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.