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Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, from the Philippines, gives thanks that WCC has created safe spaces for the churches to talk about HIV and AIDS. She asks that the ecumenical movement continue to be a beacon of support for this ongoing journey of health and healing.

In a plenary session on “The Living Fellowship” at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee meeting on 20 June, the WCC marked achievements from its past 70 years in working for Christian unity and action, and also looked ahead at challenges.

Some forty professionals working on ecumenical relations in different member churches in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East as well as North and South America, are currently gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. Their four-day meeting affords them an opportunity to learn about the various WCC programmes as well as from each other.

Reconciliation was once primarily seen as a message of the church but is now used by secular leaders trying to establish peace in communities torn by conflict and war, the WCC president for Africa, the Rev. Mary Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, has said at a major Protestant gathering in Germany.

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

On 17-23 November, the Executive Committee of the WCC met for the first time ever in China. The visit was hosted by the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is a Protestant church in the People's Republic of China, as well as one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world.

The “Exclusion and Embrace Conference: Disability, Justice and Spirituality” was held in Melbourne, Australia 20-24 August. The multi-faith conference explored the issues of faith and meaning in the lived experience of disability. Participants discussed ethics, care, inclusion in faith communities, friendship, discrimination, love, justice and liberation. Dr Samuel Kabue, executive secretary of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network, gave a presentation entitled “Disability/Theology in curriculum of Theological Institutions.”

Hope in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace formed the integral thread for proceedings at the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Trondheim, Norway this week. The 2016 meeting took place 22-28 June, the second gathering since the Central Committee was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

From Paris to Pakistan, Orlando to Myanmar, Iraq to Nigeria, each day witnesses conflict and violence perpetrated in the name of religion or committed against persons because of their religious identity.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at its meeting in Trondheim, Norway, 27 June 2016, has elected a new executive committee with 11 new members.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed three new member churches to the ecumenical fellowship and also admitted two others to interim membership status.

The action, taken by the WCC Central Committee at its June 20-28 meeting in Trondheim, Norway, expands the number of member churches to 348.

Journeying from urban centres and small Pacific islands, mountain ranges and rural towns, more than 170 Indigenous people gathered this week at the mouth of the river that flows from traditional Sami lands. Their conference, “Reconciliation Processes and Indigenous Peoples: Truth, Healing and Transformation,” brought together representatives of more than two dozen Indigenous societies in connection with the WCC Central Committee meetings in Trondheim, Norway.

Violence in the name of religion echoed in the distance, demanding a response, through the November 2015 meeting of the 25-member Executive Committee of the WCC in Bogis-Bossey and nearby Geneva, Switzerland as it planned the work of the Council in the coming years.

To revitalize and strengthen the ecumenical commitment for justice, healing, reconciliation and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula, the Ecumenical Forum on Peace in Northeast Asia was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Invoking prayers for creation, eco-justice and peace with the earth, Time for Creation, a Christian global event, is observed worldwide by many member churches of the WCC. This year, the Council has invited a focus on the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace” – a call issued by the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

Inspired by the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace”, the Central Committee of the WCC, a chief governing body of the Council, has set directions for the work of the Council from 2014 to 2017.

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.

A communiqué adopted at a WCC consultation describes human trafficking as a “serious human rights violation” and its consequences are “most horrific results of the economic and social disparities that increase the vulnerability of millions of people”.