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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.

The recently established Action by Churches Together (ACT) International Climate Change group held its first meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 18-19 September 2008.

The spiritual and moral dimension s of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.

By Annegret Kapp (*)

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.

"Our world may soon have a billion people living with constant hunger but we produce enough food to feed double the current global population if everyone shared equally," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu as G8 leaders prepare to meet in Japan. "World leaders must seek justice in solutions to the food crisis that now faces us."

With an estimated 850 million people suffering from hunger worldwide, nine out of ten of which live in developing countries, "the scandal of hunger demands the immediate attention of the churches", affirmed today in a statement the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.

By Jean Blaylock (*)

"Humanity unfortunately has transgressed the Divine command for the protection of creation", said the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in his message on World Environment Day today.  "We experience the results of this neglectful and avaricious behavior today, as weak-willed spectators of the repercussions of catastrophic climactic changes."

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.

"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 Christian Johannessen (*)

"The ecumenical movement is only faithful to the Gospel, if it is a movement of hope confronting itself with the reality of the severe threats to life that people are facing in today's world", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in Lunteren, the Netherlands, on Friday 11 April. Those threats include "the deadly scandal of poverty, diseases such as HIV and AIDS, the devastating and destructive consequences of climate change, and war - including the re-emerging danger of the use of nuclear weapons".

This year the World Water Day (22 March) falls on the Saturday before Easter (according to the calendar followed by Western churches). It also culminates the "Seven Weeks for Water" campaign by the Ecumenical Water Network.

In a wide ranging discussion at the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) the UN secretary general, H.E. Ban Ki-Moon and WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia found agreement for the two world bodies to work more closely on several global issues, particularly climate change.

The World Council of Churches central committee issued a reminder on the pressing issue of climate change this week, urging member churches and others to "Be stewards of God's creation".

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".

Societies must move away from "promoting endless growth and production of goods" as well as a "seemingly insatiable" consumption, says a statement presented today by the World Council of Churches to the plenary of high-level government representatives at the UN climate summit in Bali, Indonesia. While "the poorer carry the burden of the irresponsible waste of resources, energy and extreme consumerism of the richer," the statement affirms, actions should be focused on resolving "the problems of the great majority of today's world population."