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Today the WCC 10th Assembly hosted a unity plenary. The plenary invited participants to reflect on unity and the spiritual journey of fellowship grounded in prayerful reflection.

Today the WCC10th Assembly featured a mission plenary. The plenary session presented an action-oriented reflection based on the new WCC mission statement: Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes. The plenary sought to highlight the common challenges and opportunities for mission in the current global context.

On 1 November, in the exhibition hall at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, former general secretary of the WCC Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser discussed his book Religion, Power, Politics. Raiser is a theologian from Germany and author of many works in the area of political ethics and public theology, including For a Culture of Life: Transforming Globalization and Violence.

The WCC held its first Youth Virtual Conference titled “Live your Faith!” on 12 October, offering young Christians from around the world an opportunity to reflect on issues of concern for their communities, including eco-justice, migration and peace.

Migrants are reduced to mere commodities, traded and exchanged in the global market, according to a declaration issued by churches calling for an end to this gross violation of human dignity. The declaration was issued on the occasion of the Second United Nations High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in New York City, USA.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed “sadness, horror and concern” over the death of more than one hundred African migrants, who were on a boat en route to Europe which sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on 3 October.

In order to build on its work for the protection of climate refugees, the WCC joins an innovative campaign “Postcards from the Frontlines” aiming to achieve urgently needed recognition and protection for climate refugees around the world.

At a recent event in Geneva, 120 members of migrant communities representing various local churches were given an orientation to the WCC assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea. The event featured reflections on justice and peace issues, especially in relation to migrant workers.

A seminar has marked the strengthening of relationships between the WCC and the Global Christian Forum, affirming their distinctive and complementary roles in the quest for Christian unity.

Organized by the WCC with the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches and the Cantonal Reformed Churches of Berne, Jura and Solothurn, a recent conference gathered theological reflections on migration, a concern which remains at the heart of many current church debates.

Members of migrant and local churches in Geneva will get to experience the life and spirit of the WCC 10th Assembly in their own city on Saturday 14 September.

With 15 million members of various ethnicities and backgrounds living alongside the world’s largest national Muslim population, Indonesian churches hope to make a dynamic contribution to the upcoming assembly of the WCC in Busan, Republic of Korea.

“Welcoming and protecting the strangers and the aliens, especially the migrants, are at the core of our mission as churches,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in a meeting with Prof. François Crépeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.

While reflecting on the theme of the WCC upcoming assembly in Busan, Indian churches stressed the importance of celebrating life in fullness, vibrancy, dynamism and fervour irrespective of caste, creed, colour, class, gender or ethnicity.

The ecumenical calling of churches and exploring different ways of renewing their commitment towards justice and peace was a significant focus during the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit‘s recent visit to churches in the United States.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed condolences following the death of Brother Jeffrey Gros, recalling his significant contributions to Christian unity and ecumenical dialogue as a Catholic theologian.

Along with other faith-based groups, the WCC has helped develop a declaration, launched by the United Nations refugee agency. It aims to strengthen protection for the world’s refugees as well as internally displaced and stateless people, who account for more than 40 million people in the world.

Pentecostals and Charismatics are among the fastest growing Christian groups in the world. The question is to what extent the Pentecostals understand themselves as a church or a movement. This existential and ecclesiological issue remains ambiguous.

The July 2013 instalment of the quarterly journal The Ecumenical Review contemplates the future, and particularly the future of the WCC beyond its 10th Assembly. The assembly is to take place from 30 October to 8 November.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed deep admiration for the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada for holding their first-ever joint assembly in Ottawa, Canada.