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High officials from ancient Christian churches in the Near East have issued a common statement denouncing the emergence of armed extremist groups who “murder, shatter and violate the sacred nature of the churches” and other suffering communities in the Middle East.

Leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church have marked the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide with calls for recognition of that historic event. Beginning in April 1915, more than one million Armenians were killed by troops of the Ottoman Empire, a world power with its capital in what is now the Republic of Turkey.

With the Geneva 2 talks on Syria scheduled for 22 January, some 30 church leaders from Syria and around the world gathered a week ahead of time at the headquarters of the WCC in Geneva, Switzerland, and called for substantial action be taken at the talks to end the armed conflict.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit attended the funeral of Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) in Beirut, on 9 December.

“Ecumenism is a quality of life that needs to be articulated in all aspects of a Christian’s life”, and “conciliarity is an essential nature of the church,” said Catholicos Aram I, head of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was speaking to the audience at the World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation in Beirut, Lebanon.

Reflections on the recent “Arab spring” and young people’s involvement in the challenges of a changing ecumenical landscape were the focus of discussions in a recent meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Echos – Commission on youth in the ecumenical movement.

Catholicos Aram I, head of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit met at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey, Switzerland, on 6 April. It was their first meeting since Tveit entered office in January 2010.

With prayers, singing, gifts and speeches of thanks, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee offered its farewell to outgoing general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia on Sunday 30 August.

"Living together in community must take the centre stage of Christian-Muslim dialogue," said Catholicos Aram I at the opening of an 18-20 October ecumenical consultation aimed at developing a common Christian theological understanding of dialogue with Islam.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), together with a number of Christian world communions, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Roman Catholic Church are expecting some 50 church leaders and experts on Christian-Muslim dialogue to attend a consultation from 18 to 20 October in Chavannes-de-Bogis, outside Geneva, Switzerland.

"Migration is a human concern, not a Muslim or a Christian one, and therefore Christians and Muslims must act on it together." Representatives of Lebanon's six most numerous faith communities shared this view as the Public Hearing on Migration and the Changing Ecclesial Landscape was officially opened in Beirut on April 14.

The "entire fellowship of the Word Council of Churches (WCC) rejoices" at a successfully culminated "process of healing and reconciliation" that involved two of the Council's founding members, stated WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a letter welcoming the "historic achievement" today.

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