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At a high-profile interfaith dialogue for peace in Naples, Italy, earlier this week, gathered religious and political leaders and intellectuals from five continents. The event which was called "For a world without violence" was organized by the Catholic community of Sant'Egidio and included a eucharistic celebration conducted by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, 21 October.

By Jerry Hames (*)

There is an "international responsibility to protect people at risk in the Darfur region of Sudan and in neighbouring Chad," affirmed the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, calling upon the Council's member churches to bring that responsibility "to the attention of their governments".

The members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) have been asked to engage "their own governments over the need to break the international silence on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and provide greater assistance to displaced and refugee Iraqis".

The US and its allies must "settle the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme through negotiations and not through the use of military force," stated the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee at its 25-28 September meeting in Etchmiadzin, Armenia.

Measures implemented by the Philippine government in regard to extrajudicial killings in the country will not prevent these, affirmed the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the UN Human Rights Council's 6th session held in Geneva from 10-28 September 2007.

In an effort to promote dialogue as an alternative to a possible military confrontation between Iran and the United States, the World Council of Churches (WCC) co-sponsored a discussion between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and nearly 140 people of faith from across the United States.

The bloody conflict in Northern Ireland, the crimes committed under the apartheid regime in South Africa and under communist rule in eastern Germany, mass killings perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia or by the Guatemalan military during a 35 year long civil war: the diverse cases of these nations and their struggles to cope with the legacies of massive human rights violations are at the heart of the 1-4 October ecumenical consultation "Healing of Memories - Reconciling Communities" in Dublin, Ireland, co-organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Irish School of Ecumenics.

By Jerry Hames (*)

By Jerry Hames (*)

Church leaders and communities facing situations of violence in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans will share their experiences with an international ecumenical team visiting the United States from 15-23 September. Being from South Africa, Lebanon, Pakistan and Brazil the team members will express the solidarity of churches worldwide with the US churches while learning from their peacemaking efforts concerning urban and gun violence as well as the Iraq war and community peace building.

By Anto Akkara (*)

Kobia's letter was addressed to the general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea Rev. Kwon Oh-sung as the 19 remaining South Korean hostages, freed by the Taliban on Wednesday and Thursday after six weeks in captivity, were leaving Kabul for Dubai on Friday, 31 August. In his message, Kobia also conveys the assurance of "continued prayer and concern on the part of Christians in every part of the world" to the "families and friends of the two hostages who lost their lives". The WCC general secretary met with relatives of the hostages on his recent visit to South Korea. He had earlier invited the Council's member churches to pray for "a peaceful end" to the crisis and the release of the hostages. Letter to the general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Korea: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=4136 See also our previous press releases: - meeting with the hostages' families: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/all-news-english/displ… - call to pray: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/all-news-english/displ…

At a time when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - today's Istanbul - is facing growing hardships imposed by decisions of the Turkish judiciary, members of the worldwide ecumenical family have expressed support and solidarity to His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will welcome five young people (aged 18-30 years) to serve as interns in its Geneva offices from February 2008 to January 2009. Interns bring valuable experiences to the WCC at the same time as they undertake several modules of ecumenical learning.

The killing of a second Korean Christian hostage in Afghanistan has led the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) to make an urgent call for prayer among the "entire ecumenical community around the world [...] that the killings of innocent people may stop and that these hostages may safely return to their families."

War-torn Sri Lanka is to receive the first of a series of ecumenical "living letters" teams which will visit Christian communities facing situations of violence in different regions of the world in the run up to the 2011 International Ecumenical Peace Convocation being organized by the World Council of Churches.

This coming 21 September Christians from Congo to the US, and from Colombia to Switzerland to South Korea will join in prayers during the International Day of Prayer for Peace.

Representatives of African, European and Middle Eastern churches, church-related organisations and ecumenical bodies working on migration issues and associated with the World Council of Churches (WCC) said they are "pleased to contribute to the Global Forum on Migration and Development" that will meet for the first time today and tomorrow in Brussels, Belgium.

Representatives of churches, church-related organisations and ecumenical bodies associated with the World Council of Churches (WCC) from Africa, Europe and the Middle East will be gathering in Brussels from 6-9 July 2007 for a meeting on migration in and between these regions. The participants from sending and receiving regions will focus on the issue of removals from Europe, coordinate advocacy work directed towards the European Union and the African Union and develop advocacy strategies to be implemented in the regions with a particular emphasis on "being church together".