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Around 400 people met at the Temple de la Fusterie in Geneva, Switzerland to participate in an inter-religious vigil on 20 August expressing solidarity with the persecuted religious communities in Iraq during this time of conflict in the country.

Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, associate and acting general secretary of the WCC, has expressed solidarity with those seeking justice for women who suffered from sexual slavery imposed by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

After searching for more than 35 years, the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina have finally found the grandson of one of their founders, Estela de Carlotto.

Situations of conflict, social fragmentation and political tensions in South Sudan, South Korea and Nigeria, as well as struggles of the churches in these countries seeking justice, peace and stability for all people and communities, formed the focus of a session on 3 July at the WCC Central Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Attacks on civilians and the denial of human rights continues in the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan.

After bombings on 21 May in the northern Nigerian city of Jos, in which more than one-hundred people have been killed, “heart-felt sorrow and condolences” have been expressed in a joint statement by the WCC general secretary and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan.

The abduction of more than 250 young women by the Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria has prompted “profound concern” from the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. In his letter to Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, Tveit encouraged “swift and peaceful” action to restore these students back to their homes.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that “fervent prayer offered by Christians around the world” was answered with release of Greek Orthodox nuns kidnapped by rebels in the Syrian Christian town of Maaloula.

The WCC general secretary is calling on the council's 345 member churches and churches around the world to continue to pray for the safe return of the twelve nuns abducted from the Convent of St Thecla in the historical town of Maaloula on 2 December 2013, as well as the two Archbishops of Aleppo in Syria Mar Yohanna Gregorios Ibrahim from the Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Paul Yazigi from the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch who were kidnapped in April 2013 near Aleppo, Syria on their way back from a humanitarian mission.

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.

A WCC conference has issued a joint statement calling the churches and ecumenical actors to commit themselves to support one another in prayers and actions to support Christian presence and witness in the Middle East.

For the first time in their history, the patriarch of the Antiochian Orthodox Church has asked the believers to adorn the traditional Palm Sunday processions with black ribbons tied on candles rather than the usual white ribbons expressing their sadness because of the two abducted church leaders from Aleppo, Syria.

Two Christian bishops from Aleppo, Syria, were supported in prayer at a special service in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, home of the World Council of Churches, in Geneva on Thursday, 25 April.