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In an Easter message, more than 60 South African church leaders and Christian, Jewish and Muslim lay theologians have conveyed their solidarity with Palestinian Christians in their Kairos call.

By Kimmy and Stefan, Ecumenical Accompaniers in Bethlehem

The ACT Alliance, bringing together over 100 church-backed relief and development organizations worldwide, has been formally launched on 24 March with celebrations in Geneva and around the world.

With a new sense of urgency in view of a pandemic that grows exponentially, high level figures from many of the world's faiths have committed to exercise "stronger, more visible and practical leadership" in response to HIV, with an emphasis on eradicating the stigma and discrimination towards those affected.

In an act of solidarity with the 2.5 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe, private and hygienic lavatories, staff members of a number of church-related organizations based at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), queued in front of a symbolic "toilet door" for ten minutes on World Water Day, 22 March.

The first-ever Summit of High Level Religious Leaders on HIV and AIDS will be held in Den Dolder, Netherlands, from 22-23 March 2010. It aims to generate greater involvement from religious leaders of many of the world’s faiths in the global response to the pandemic.

"We need to emphasize time and again the sense of mutuality and interdependence as the basis of relationships between Christians", said Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa, convener of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN). This is especially important at a time when "denominations are increasingly worried with internal, identity-centred issues and therefore risk a credibility crisis", she added.

A joint response by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB) and the Roman Catholic dioceses of this southern German state to the document "Called to be the One Church" was given to the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit on 15 March in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar mosque and head of the al-Azhar University "will be remembered with great respect and appreciation for his remarkable contribution to Islamic scholarship, for his prominent role and genuine commitment to intercultural and inter-religious dialogue", World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit wrote in a condolence letter to the Ulama’ of al-Azhar al-Sharif on 11 March.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, expressed "grief and shock" over the recent violence in Nigeria where officials say several hundred people were killed in villages near the city of Jos, in the Central Plateau State, during the past weekend.

During his first visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, Turkey, and on the occasion of the Feast of the Cross on Sunday, 7 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, "On the cross Christ stretched out his arms to embrace the world. The grace of the cross unites us all."

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and Rev. Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met on 3 March, at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss common concerns around Christian unity.

On International Women's Day, 8 March, ecumenical leaders have urged churches to work to end violence against women in its many forms across the world.

Rev. Charles Harper, emblematic figure of the struggle for human rights in the ecumenical movement, was decorated with the Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins by the Republic of Chile .

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.