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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".

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Issues relating to Chinese government policies with regard to development, international cooperation, and the role of religion in building a "harmonious society" were addressed by World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia and members of a WCC delegation at their meeting with Mr Jia Qinglin, chairperson of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference, on 21 November in Beijing.

World AIDS Day is a unique moment each year when all of humanity is challenged to reflect on the way that HIV and AIDS affects us and how we can respond to the pandemic.

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"Listen to the scientists and the cry of the Earth and address the reality of climate change with the extreme urgency that it demands" is the WCC's call to delegates at the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP 2) and to the concurrent, 12th, session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12).

One of the world's first international micro-credit institutions in the service of the poor is celebrating its 60th anniversary at a conference in Geneva this week. ECLOF, the Ecumenical Church Loan Fund, was founded in 1946 by leaders of the WCC and visionary bankers who sought to harness credit in the service of the most needy, and pioneered the system of micro-credit with the poor which today is recognised as one of the most important motors of human development.

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.

"You have challenged and pushed us never to adjust to the powers that are, but always to discern the signs of God's coming kingdom and to act accordingly."

By Alexander Belopopsky (*)

By Stephen Webb and Yannick Provost (*) [Corrected version of the interview distributed on 11 September]

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