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Rev. Canon Dr John Saint Helier Gibaut, from the Anglican Church of Canada, will head the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order as of January 2008.

Methodist archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Nigeria has been chosen to moderate the Continuation Committee on Ecumenism in the 21st Century, a group assigned to monitor and encourage initiatives in the global quest for Christian unity. He was affirmed by consensus of the fourteen members attending the committee's first meeting during the week of 18-20 November in Bossey, Switzerland.

Good faith, multilateral participation and adherence to the rule of law are essential if the Annapolis Middle East Conference starting Tuesday, 27 November, is to be a success, WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia writes to Condoleezza Rice, Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas.

In face of what he called "escalating human rights violations," the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia announced stronger ecumenical advocacy efforts to bring the Philippines under international scrutiny.

Churches in Bangladesh have launched a massive relief effort for victims of the devastating cyclone that has claimed thousands of lives along the country's southwestern coast.

Revised figures for the HIV epidemic which drop the estimated number of people living with HIV worldwide to about 33 million have been welcomed by church workers active in the response to HIV and AIDS around the world as a sign of hope and a challenge to keep promises. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) collected their views.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

The global ecumenical family's concern about the growing human rights violations in the Philippines will be a major focus of the 18-21 November visit to the country by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.

A severe reminder "of the wealth that was built and sustained on the continued extraction and plunder of Africa's resources as well as on the exploitation of Africa's people" was addressed to Christians in the global North by the participants in the African ecumenical consultation "Linking poverty, wealth and ecology" last week.

After four days of meetings, some 240 leaders of a broad range of churches, confessions and interchurch organizations from over 70 countries agreed to carry forward what they call "the Global Christian Forum process", an open platform for encounter and dialogue whose goal is to "foster mutual respect, explore and address common challenges".

Pentecostal theologian and scholar Cheryl Bridges-Johns proposed a radical reinvention of the ecumenical movement in a keynote address delivered on the third day of the Global Christian Forum which takes place 6-9 November in Limuru, near Nairobi, Kenya.

By Juan Michel (*)

"Some would have said that this event was not possible, but here we are - and the world wonders what will come next," said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia at the opening of the Global Christian Forum taking place in Limuru, near Nairobi, Kenya, from 6-9 November.

A unique gathering of high level church leaders to start Tuesday 6 November near Nairobi, Kenya, features the broadest range of Christian traditions ever represented at a global meeting, allowing for a discussion of unprecedented ecumenical breadth on what Christians are called to do - together if possible - in the world today.

Leaders from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its member churches are calling on the United Nations and member states as part of their concerted ongoing advocacy efforts.

The United Nations and the World Council of Churches (WCC) have reaffirmed their commitment to collaborate at a meeting between the general secretaries of both organizations held on 29 October at the UN headquarters in New York.

Two outstanding personalities, known to the ecumenical family for their achievements in faith-based advocacy and interfaith dialogue, have been engaged by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) to complete its leadership team. The newly appointed staff members will head the programme on Public witness and the programme on Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. The appointments complete a reconfiguration of the WCC staff leadership due to programmatic reshaping after the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006 .

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.

When does the pursuit of economical wellbeing turn into greed? This is one of the questions to be discussed at a 5-9 November ecumenical consultation in Dar es Salaam. Joint church strategies and actions for addressing the interlinked problems of poverty, excessive wealth, and ecological degradation in Africa are intended results.

A second round of dialogue between World Council of Churches (WCC) members and Pentecostals was inaugurated last week in Baar, Switzerland. A group of seventeen Protestant, Orthodox and Pentecostal Christians met to re-launch the work begun by the first Joint Consultative Group between the WCC and Pentecostals from 2000 to 2005.