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“Christians are to acknowledge that changing one’s religion is a decisive step that must be accompanied by sufficient time for reflection and preparation, through a process ensuring full personal freedom.” This assertion is one of the guiding principles for Christian mission in India suggested in early March by a consultation convened under the leadership of the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore University (BTESSC).

Joachim Gauck, a former Protestant pastor in East Germany and noted human rights activist, was elected on Sunday 18 March as president of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Pope Shenouda III, spiritual leader of the Egyptian Coptic Church since 1971 and a president of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1991 to 1998, passed away of natural causes on Saturday 17 March. In a letter to the church dated 18 March, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit paid tribute to Pope Shenouda’s unwavering pursuit of Christian unity and peace throughout the Middle East and the world.

A group of Christian leaders from Odisha (formerly Orissa), India visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) offices, sharing their experiences on working for religious freedom and lobbying for justice on behalf of religious minorities during the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Following an announcement from Lambeth Palace, London, that Dr Rowan Williams will be stepping down from his position as Archbishop of Canterbury, the World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed admiration for the archbishop’s ongoing leadership and his significant contribution to the ecumenical movement spanned over several years.

“Words alone are inadequate to express our sorrow,” wrote World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit to the churches and people of Belgium following the death on Tuesday 13 March of 22 children and six adults in the crash of a hired coach near Sierre, Switzerland.

To commemorate World Water Day, the World Council of Churches will be hosting a painting exhibition with the theme Agua (water) by renowned Argentine painter and artist, Néstor Favre-Mossier. His paintings will be displayed at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva from 19 March in the afternoon to 23 March.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has admired the Taizé community’s ecumenical approach to spirituality though “prayer, singing and silence”. “As we all work towards Christian unity, Taizé shows us how to be guests in prayer and overcome our divisions with humility,” said Tveit.

In The Ecumenical Review of March 2012, Christian experts survey the current position of churches throughout the Middle East. According to the editors, past year’s historic events in the Arab world “have highlighted the aspirations to citizens for their dignity and freedom”, yet these same developments “have also raised new and serious challenges for the many Christian communities there.”

On the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan, the World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed solidarity with the victims and encouraging governments to take concrete steps to avoid such tragedies in future.

On International Women’s Day, 8 March, staff based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva organized special prayers and programmes to acknowledge achievements of the ecumenical organizations in the area of gender justice and to celebrate their struggles together as a community of women and men.

The Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 3 March in Istanbul, Turkey. He met with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in order to discuss the need for “harmony” and “mutual trust among the religious and national groups”, a gesture greatly appreciated by the World Council of Churches (WCC).

After two months of illness, the renowned ecumenist, theologian and Lutheran pastor Dr Milton Schwantes passed away on 1 March in São Paulo, Brazil, at the age of 65. The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit called his contribution over the years an "asset for the ecumenical movement.”

“Before God and our communities, we are responsible to Jews for the historical and ongoing realities of anti-Semitism, to Palestinians since the Nakba, to Muslim neighbours in the light of Islamophobia, to persons who are vulnerable, and to victims of colonial conquest, among others," said participants of a World Council of Churches (WCC) sponsored conference.

Church leaders in the United States along with farmers and consumers will fast from 5 to 10 March to protest the retailer Publix’s rejection of the groundbreaking Fair Food Program in Florida. "... Theirs [Publix'] is a morally indefensible position and they can't look the workers in the eye," said Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, president of the World Council of Churches for the North America region.

In his public lecture on 28 February at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “a historical landmark”, which he said sometimes may be “misread”, especially in a “cultural settings where individualist assumptions rule”.

By Astrid Berner-Rodoreda (*)