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The World Council of Churches (WCC) Executive Committee has set October 2013 as the date for the Tenth WCC Assembly which will be held in Busan Korea.

Representatives from churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society organizations from around the world will gather in Geneva from 27 September to 1 October 2010 for the sixth United Nations Advocacy Week (UNAW), an annual event organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

A new inter-religious partnership for health will be kick-started at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in New York, 20-22 September.

What does it mean for the church to call for peace in a world where many forms of racism persist? This is one of the questions a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference on racism tried to answer.

Churches' attitudes and responses to racism today will come under scrutiny at a conference, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and Dutch missionary and diaconal agency Kerk in Actie , in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 26-29 August.

by Juan Michel (*)

By Stephen Brown (*)

"Great dismay" at the shooting and killing of two young Christians in Faisalabad on 19 July was expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in letters to Pakistan's president and its prime minister.

The need for a "theology of healing" was the central theme of a recent international encounter between Orthodox women and Christians of both sexes from other traditions.

In times of exploding budget deficits and unemployment figures, migrants are often used as scapegoats for all the ailings and failings of society. In such a context it is the task of the church to uphold the human rights and dignity of all.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has denounced the extrajudicial killings of Benjamin Bayles and Jovelito Agustin, both lay ministers of the Philippine Independent Church.

Solidarity fatigue is one of the main obstacles faced by Colombian civil society organizations struggling to find a resolution to the country's 40-year long internal armed conflict, an ecumenical gathering has been told. Participants also heard a renewed call to action.

An ecumenical delegation including Fr Rex Reyes (general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and a president of the Christian Conference of Asia) and Marie Hilao-Enriquez (chairperson of the human rights group Karapatan) presented the human rights situation in the Philippines at a lunch discussion with staff at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 7 June 2010.

Deep concern over the recent death of Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and the "increased oppression against Congolese human rights defenders" during the past year was expressed by the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in a letter to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 4 June.

The plight of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and the need to hold the Israeli State accountable under international law were highlighted at a roundtable hosted by the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum in Geneva, Switzerland on 31 May. The roundtable was one of the events marking the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel.

Although it is often portrayed as a religious conflict, the crisis in Nigeria's Central Plateau State is of social and economic nature, the country's foreign minister told church representatives. The church delegation advocated for government action to develop the area and to bring to trial those responsible for an outburst of communal violence last March.

The World Council of Churches has lamented the "intolerable loss of life" in Thailand and asked for all parties to abandon violence and return to negotiations.

Recent violence in Iraq has led Iraqi church leaders to issue a statement calling on “all government officials and political parties in order to give priority to the public interest and the security of citizens.”

The international tug-of-war over carbon emission thresholds and other instruments meant to limit the deterioration of the earth's climate has caused a big stir in recent months, but yielded little results. Therefore the international community must now get ready to take care of those who will be forced from their homes by climate change.

A Living Letters team of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will pay a solidarity visit to Nigeria from 15-20 May 2010.