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"Changing ecclesial and ecumenical context" : The WCC's Common Understanding and Vision process offers a coherent and challenging vision: a broad fellowship of churches, committed and accountable to one another, seeking visible unity in their life and witness today.

This text is the outcome of more than eight years of study and consultation on the "common understanding and vision of the World Council of Churches", mandated by the WCC Central Committee at its meeting in 1989. Between the Seventh Assembly of the WCC in 1991 and the Eighth Assembly in 1998, this subject was continuously on the agenda of the WCC central committee; in addition, it was extensively discussed in meetings of WCC commissions, advisory bodies and staff. Insights were sought and received from WCC member churches, other churches and a broad range of ecumenical partners, as well as many individual participants in and students of the ecumenical movement.

"Final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC" : The 60-member Special Commission was created by the WCC's eighth assembly in 1998 in response to mainly Orthodox concerns about participation in the Council. Composed of an equal number of representatives from Orthodox churches and from the other churches belonging to the WCC, the Commission submitted its final report to the central committee in September 2002.

A joint consultative group between the WCC and Pentecostal churches was created in response to the mandate of the 1998 WCC Assembly in Zimbabwe. Excerpts from a report on their work from 2000-2005.

Table of contents:
Introduction
Minute on economic measures for peace in Israel/Palestine
Human rights and languages of indigenous peoples
Countries affected by the tsunami
International Criminal Court
Detainees held at Guantanamo Bay
Iraq crisis: enhancing peace, accountability and the rule of law
Practising hospitality in an era of new forms of migration