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On 12 March, Jane Murenga, a head teacher at a local Anglican Church-sponsored primary school, was raped and murdered in Githure village, Kirinyaga County in Kenya. She was hosting her younger sister at her home. She left the main house to take a shower in the bathroom which is detached from the house. Her sister decided to check on her, only to find her on the ground lifeless with a man on top of her, raping her.

On 15 March, during the 61st session of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Ecumenical Women (EW) organized a public witness event at the Tillman Chapel at the Church Center of the UN (CCUN) to mobilize faith communities and civil society to work in solidarity to end gender-based violence.

Religious leaders in Cyprus stood together against violence towards women and girls, releasing a first-ever official joint statement on 8 March to mark International Women’s Day.

All forms of human enslavement are the most heinous of sins, violating the free will and the integrity of every human being created in the image of God, stated the Forum on Modern Slavery, co-organized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of England in Istanbul from February 6-7, 2017.

In a country where Christians are in clear minority, often suffering discrimination, and in a context that has seen repeated frictions and violence between people of different religious traditions, the Church of Norway and Church of Pakistan have broken new ecumenical ground during a recent week in Lahore, Pakistan.

If the worsening global inequality highlighted recently is to be tackled, world leadership must act “now”, in tangible ways, says World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, participating in the 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland this week.

The days from 25 November to 10 December have been set aside for a campaign called “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.”

”We are deeply proud that we are able to support your ministry of service,” says World Council of Churches’ general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a message delivered to the Fellowship of the Least Coin, in celebrating their 60th anniversary.

The World Council of Churches and the International Alliance of Women (IAW) recently organized a guest lecture and panel discussion on “Women in Top Leadership and Decision-Making Positions.” The guest speaker, Torild Skard, reviewed 70 years of struggle for women’s rights and highlighted how little has changed since 1945, when the Charter of the United Nations recognized equal rights of men and women. “The rhetoric developed over time to become more and more ambitious but what about the reality,” Skard said.

As they talk during a workshop in Ghana, women are collectively asking a question: “Is it not time for women and girls to raise their voices to say what they want as mothers, as widows, as single parents, and as God’s children?”

In a public statement adopted on 28 June, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has designated “peace-building in the context of religion and violence” as the special thematic focus for 2017.

A plenary discussion on support by religious communities for the rights of children, and a first draft of the statement of “principles for child-friendly churches,” captured the imagination of the Central Committee of the WCC on 27 June. The document will now undergo further revision and be resubmitted at the next WCC executive committee meeting.

Women and children figure prominently as refugees in mass movements of people in recent months and their rights will be at the forefront of a summer school organized in Greece by the Conference of European Churches.

In 1982, shortly after Dr Sasiprabha Stanley married, she traveled with her husband to Odisha, in eastern India, to a village called Champakenda. “That was the first time I stepped into another state where I did not know the language. I was a foreigner, simply sitting and watching the women.”

On the 28th Quadrennial Assembly of the National Council of Churches in India, held in Jabalpur from 27-30 April, Rev. Dr Sang Chang, WCC president for Asia, urged Indian churches to commit themselves afresh to the task of building just and inclusive communities.

How can we begin building peace in an era of religious extremism and acts of terror? Start by reaching out in your own neighborhood, suggests Rev. Arshad Gill, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan.

The 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women had “the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls” as its review theme.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is taking a new turn in its 60th Session by relating its goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The WCC's commitment to child rights and gender justice is manifested by its support for Together for Girls' Every Hour Matters campaign, which was launched earlier this week. The campaign aims to increase awareness of the critical importance of quickly accessing post-rape care.

An American mission agency is inviting people worldwide to pray for women throughout the month of March. The Lott Carey Global Prayer Partnership for women’s empowerment has gathered 31 prayers from its international mission partners and Americans that it hopes will inspire acts of support for women’s concerns.