Search results

In countries across six continents, a wide diversity of religious communities, people of faith, human rights and peace organizations are preparing to mark the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel.

While seeing holy sites and ancient structures remains popular for Christian tourists visiting the Holy Land, there is an emerging concern that Christian tourists have an ethical obligation to engage with the people living there, to become witnesses to their struggle for freedom, human dignity, equality, justice and peace.

Recent violence in Iraq has led Iraqi church leaders to issue a statement calling on “all government officials and political parties in order to give priority to the public interest and the security of citizens.”

Church ecumenical officers play a key role in the advancement of ecumenism at a time when resources are scarce and inward-looking tendencies thrive.

The international tug-of-war over carbon emission thresholds and other instruments meant to limit the deterioration of the earth's climate has caused a big stir in recent months, but yielded little results. Therefore the international community must now get ready to take care of those who will be forced from their homes by climate change.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will be one of the main speakers at the Second Ecumenical Kirchentag (church convention) in Munich, Germany, 12-16 May.

A Living Letters team of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will pay a solidarity visit to Nigeria from 15-20 May 2010.

“Telling the Truth About Ourselves and Our World” , a study guide on overcoming violence in contemporary contexts, has been published by the World Council of Churches in English, French, German and Spanish as part of the build-up to the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in May 2011 at Kingston, Jamaica.

The president of Iran and the US secretary of state made early headlines at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference in New York with a volley of accusations over nuclear development and nuclear weapons.

Church leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda have made a "firm commitment to work together in promoting human dignity and fundamental human rights".

In a keynote speech on the theme of the 13 th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) "Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal", the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) said: " There is no true prophecy that does not speak both the critical truth and contribute to the building up of a vision, a dream of the new life in common."

" The new US-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty signed today in Prague is news that the World Council of Churches has awaited for a long time: the achievement of a nuclear weapons agreement between the two most heavily armed nations in the world," WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, commenting on the signing of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama in Prague, 8 April 2010.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has extended the deadline for the submission of workshop proposals for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) to take place in Jamaica in May 2011. The new deadline to submit proposals is 31 May 2010.

In an Easter message, more than 60 South African church leaders and Christian, Jewish and Muslim lay theologians have conveyed their solidarity with Palestinian Christians in their Kairos call.

By Kimmy and Stefan, Ecumenical Accompaniers in Bethlehem

"We need to emphasize time and again the sense of mutuality and interdependence as the basis of relationships between Christians", said Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa, convener of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN). This is especially important at a time when "denominations are increasingly worried with internal, identity-centred issues and therefore risk a credibility crisis", she added.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, expressed "grief and shock" over the recent violence in Nigeria where officials say several hundred people were killed in villages near the city of Jos, in the Central Plateau State, during the past weekend.

During his first visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, Turkey, and on the occasion of the Feast of the Cross on Sunday, 7 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, "On the cross Christ stretched out his arms to embrace the world. The grace of the cross unites us all."

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.