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At its first meeting since its appointment in February 2006, the WCC's executive committee has approved new programmatic directions for the Council and has endorsed a framework for activities in the coming years.

For peace to be achieved, both parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be held to identical standards on ending violence, respecting agreements, and recognizing the other says the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee.

Writing to the churches of Brazil from the World Council of Churches' executive committee meeting in Geneva, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia and central committee moderator Rev. Dr Walter Altmann convey the Council's "solidarity and prayers" to the victims of recent gang violence in São Paulo, and comment on the social and legal background to these events.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee today said that the new UN Human Rights Council needs to avoid "policies and practices of double standards, en-bloc voting and politicization of the human rights agenda that were so prevalent at the UN Commission on Human Rights" that they "virtually paralyzed" it before its "ignominious end".

Patriarch Theophilos III, head of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was received by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia today at the WCC headquarters in Geneva in their first official encounter since he was elected in 2005.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee called today on the government of Iran for a moratorium on its uranium enrichment programme, to recognize the state of Israel, and to support international efforts to end terrorism. Other countries should also contribute to global security, the committee said.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee meets at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute outside Geneva from 16-19 May 2006 at its first session since its election at the Council's 9th Assembly in Brazil earlier this year.

Expressing "alarm and concern" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has presented a formal protest to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland over two recent incidents involving violence by Israeli settlers against Christian volunteers participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is urging the European Union to exercise "respect for the democratic mandate given by [the recent Palestinian] elections and time for the new government to find its feet and demonstrate its intentions," following the Council of the European Union's endorsement of a temporary halt to direct aid to the Palestinian government headed by Hamas.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia wrote 23 March to Christian Peacemaker Teams co-director Douglas Pritchard, expressing "great joy" at the news that three CPT team members held in Iraq had been freed.

While 50 people from eight countries were paying a solidarity visit to Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories last week, related advocacy activities focusing on the situation in Israel and Palestine were taking place on five continents.

The vivid diversity of the ecumenical movement has been highlighted in new research, published by the World Council of Churches (WCC) this month, that confirms the continued growth of the fellowship of churches.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) today thanked the United Nations General Assembly for its work in bringing a reshaped Human Rights Council into being.

"Tom Fox was in Iraq as a religious peacemaker so that those who use violence to pursue their own plans for that much-troubled nation might see that this is no way toward peace," Peter Weiderud, director of the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Churches for International Affairs (WCC/CCIA), said in Geneva today.

"The actions of the government are in clear violation of the democratic rights of the Filippino people." This clear denunciation was made in a 7 March 2006 letter from World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Georges Lemopoulos to Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

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by Walt Wiltschek (*)

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"Accompany Israeli and Palestinian leaders with courage and patience in a direction that will give their people cause for hope," World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia says today in a letter to members of the UN Security Council's "Middle East Quartet".

"… an extraordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life during an extraordinary time" is how World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, describes Coretta Scott King in a tribute sent today to member churches in the USA. The widow of the US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, died yesterday, 31 January, at the age of 78.