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The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has offered his condolences to the people of Chile, after a powerful earthquake struck along the coastline of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called on the whole ecumenical family to keep pushing the international community for a "fair, ambitious and binding agreement" on climate change, in view of the UN climate summit to take place in Mexico in December.

Concerned about the security of Christians in Egypt, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has encouraged the churches in the country to continue their involvement in Muslim-Christian dialogue. "

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has requested its member churches to advocate for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Colombia, the full respect of human rights and the cessation of the so called "Plan Colombia".

"To be one, the Church must go back to its common basis. Nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified", the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has said. The cross is not just a sign of religious identity, he added, but a "reality check" for both the churches and the ecumenical movement.

"With great hope and deep satisfaction" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the news that a Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq has been established.

"The prayer of Jesus that his disciples may be one so that the world may believe (John 17:21) takes on new urgency in view of the challenges peoples and churches are facing today", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, in welcoming a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

In a service ahead of the launch of the Lenten study series on the struggle to end violence against women "Cries of Anguish; Stories of Hope", the general secretary of the World Council of Churches Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit invited people to reflect on how they might give the bread of relationship rather than the heavy stones of violence to both victims and perpetrators of violence.

"Holy Waters" is the theme of this year's Lenten reflections provided by the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN). Starting on Monday 15 February the weekly reflections will explore the connection between the way water is used in different liturgical practices and our "daily water".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "to ensure the immediate release" of Dr Alexis Montes and other 42 health workers detained by military and police forces on 6 February. Montes, a physician, is a long-time staff member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the initiative by the seven most industrialized nations (G7), which pledged this past weekend to write Haiti's debts with them off. In a letter from the WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC also asked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions to follow the G7 example and make sure financial support to Haiti is "grant-based and not debt-creating".

http://pief.oikoumene.org is a new website launched by the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum geared to providing a springboard for advocacy, public education, and mobilization. The forum's role consists in convening networks for common action in order to generate church-based awareness raising and advocacy for peace in the Middle East. The website will provide support for actions with partner churches and ecumenical organizations focussing on the following areas:

Cries of Anguish; Stories of Hope -  a series of online Lenten study resources on the struggle to end violence against women will be launched 15 February during a prayer service at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, which is home to a number of international church organizations including the World Council of Churches (WCC). The general secretary of the WCC, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit,  will participate and WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society, Dr Fulata Mbano Moyo, will discuss biblical texts addressing violence against women. Â

The endowment of two new scholarship funds geared towards facilitating studies at the Ecumenical Institute of the WCC was celebrated at the graduation ceremony for the 61st session of the institute's Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies on 3 February.

The role of the church in building just peace was highlighted last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where three World Council of Churches (WCC) advisory groups met to recognize the culmination of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) and the forthcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) scheduled for May 2011.

"God’s grace and Your Holiness’ genuine commitment has made Your first year as Spiritual Head of the Russian Orthodox Church a blessed and fruitful period, a year of great achievements in all fields of life of the Russian Orthodox Church," wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a letter to Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia on 1 February.

By Juan Michel (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has called on the international community to cancel Haiti's foreign debt.