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By Fredrick Nzwili (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is convening an international conference called "Churches together for Peace with Justice in the Middle East" in Jordan, 18-20 June. The event will address prospects for peace in Israel and Palestine and launch a new church advocacy forum.

Praying with Jerusalem's Christians, marching to the White House or sponsoring one of 14,609 olive trees are among the activities taking place in "International Church Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel" this week. The initiative is organized by member churches and related organizations of the World Council of Churches to mark 40 years of the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It involves public activities and messages to governments in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

"The impact of migration on the church and the ecclesial context" is the theme of a 6-8 June 2007 conference in Nairobi, Kenya of the Global Ecumenical Network on Migration (GEM). To be opened by Kenya's minister for immigration, and hosted by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the conference will be attended by representatives of churches, church-related organizations and ecumenical bodies in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the Pacific.

To highlight the urgency of peace in Palestine and Israel after 40 years of occupation, the World Council of Churches (WCC), member churches and related organizations are organizing a week of prayers, seminars and advocacy to mark this June's anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The goal of the week is to raise awareness in churches and civil society and to impress upon governments the need for new efforts to end the conflict and negotiate a just settlement.

"People of African descent in the diaspora and in Africa await an unambiguous apology and clear sign from European nations that acknowledges their participation in this terrible part of colonial history" that was the slave trade, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has told UK prime minister Tony Blair.

Nearly 1,300 religious advocates are expected for this year's Ecumenical Advocacy Days taking place 9-12 March in Washington, DC on the theme, "… and how are the children?"

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is launching an international, inter-church advocacy initiative for peace in Israel and Palestine - the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum - at a conference June 17-21, 2007, in Jordan.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee has expressed worries about the "deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea", while encouraging the establishment of a "joint Christian and Muslim Peace Committee for Somalia".

The task of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) reference group is to guide work on the Decade over the period between now and 2010. Meeting in Geneva in December, the group islooking at preparations for an event that will culminate the Decade in 2011 - an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) - as well as at plans for the Decade's focus on Europe in 2007.

Writing to Mrs Adelheid Kistner on 5 December, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia characterized her husband, South African pastor Dr Wolfram Kistner, as "a tireless champion for justice, equality and human dignity for all," and "one of the clearest voices, articulating biblically and theologically why we as Christians had to support the struggle against apartheid".

A new group of 25 ecumenical accompaniers have just begun three months of working with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The group includes the first Hindu and the second Muslim to participate in the programme, the former from South Africa and the latter from the UK.

The central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has appealed to the United Nations and the African Union to endorse a plan for a sustainable peace process between the government of Uganda and the "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA).

In a pastoral letter to member churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the eve of historic elections, World Council of Churches' (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has offered words of compassion and an appeal to the nation's leaders - and to the wider world.

By Manuel Quintero*

by Walt Wiltschek (*)

:: World AIDS Day events in Geneva and Bern

Does the quest for religious identity, evident in many places around the world today, lead inevitably to opposition to other religious traditions? And how, in contexts of religious and cultural plurality, can we move beyond tolerance to positive respect between religions?

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» African church leaders visit Israel & Palestine