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The people of Kosovo got some good news when the EU and Kosovo signed an agreement on 27 October to deepen ties, a move seen as a first step towards Kosovar membership in the European Union.

It is raining. It is cold and windy. Autumn is in the air in northern Greece. We have just arrived at the Idomeni refugee camp in northern Greece, on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The fast-approaching winter poses as great a threat to the refugees as do the smugglers. In the worst case, winter means death.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed deep concern over the renewed wave of violence in Jerusalem. In a letter to WCC member churches in Palestine and Israel, he expressed solidarity with the churches and peoples of the land, and affirmed WCC’s commitment to justice and peace in Palestine and Israel.

What do Indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of the report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children?

The kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014 is sadly symbolic of the suffering of children in Nigeria, says the pastor who heads the Council of Churches of Nigeria.

What do indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of the report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children? Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, responds.

An ecumenical delegation organized by the WCC was received by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government, on 28 September 2015 in Erbil. The ecumenical delegation had spent six days visiting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – including the Duhok area, part of the Nineveh Plain, and Erbil – and represented the WCC at the 27 September enthronement of the new Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III, in Erbil.

What do indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children? Dr Marie Wilson, TRC Commissioner, responds in this wide-ranging interview with the WCC Communication.

The WCC and UNICEF signed a partnership on 18 September pledging to work together to support children’s rights, with special initial focus on two major issues: violence against children and climate change.

Reduction in and prevention of statelessness, and the protection of stateless people in the Middle East provided the focus of a workshop organized by the WCC and the Middle East Council of Churches in Beirut, Lebanon.

The vision of building a better world for children where they can be protected from violence and sexual abuse in families, schools and communities was strongly affirmed by representatives of both religious and secular organizations in a forum held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Despite significant steps taken by the Kenyan government, coordinator of the WCC Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network Dr Samuel Kabue says that “more needs to be done” so that people with disability can enjoy their rights.

To strengthen relationships and support churches in Latin America in their struggles for justice and peace, a pilgrimage of church leaders organized by the WCC will visit Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia from 24 August to 7 September.

The WCC has welcomed the constructive new consensus emerging in the United Nations Security Council regarding the ongoing crisis in Syria, particularly the support given to the peace plan proposed by UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura.

Violence against children was one emerging issue discussed at the Christian Conference of Asia's assembly. “It is still a sad reality in large parts of the world, but momentum to end violence against children is growing within governments and communities, amongst parents and religious leaders. This is a good thing since it takes everyone to make a change”, says Lauren Rumble, UNICEF’s chief of child protection in Indonesia.

“The member churches of the World Council of Churches have pledged themselves to stand against all genocides, wherever they happen,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the council (WCC), on the morning of 10 June after a solemn service of remembrance at the Armenian Genocide Memorial and Museum overlooking the capital city of Yerevan. The service took place in the context of the one-hundredth anniversary of an era of great suffering following mass arrests, executions and deportation of Armenians beginning on 24 April 1915.

An international conference on peace and security in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has issued an invitation for churches and partners to establish “a suitable structure or process for the purpose of sharing and consolidation of existing initiatives by the churches and related organizations or networks, and in order to consider new ecumenical initiatives” in the DRC.

As the tragic situation of conflict in South Sudan moves into its 18th month, the WCC and the South Sudan Council of Churches continue calling for an end to the senseless conflict.

The WCC general secretary has sent a letter to the President of the Republic of Indonesia H. E. Joko Widodo appealing for clemency for the 10 death row prisoners scheduled for imminent execution in Indonesia.

In a solidarity letter to Abune Mathias, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, a member church of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC general secretary expressed deep shock over the recent killing of more than 20 Ethiopian Christians in Libya by the so called Islamic State.