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Christians around the world celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year are remembering the 1910 World Missionary Conference in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh as a key initiative that led to the ecumenical movement.

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010, Christians throughout the world will be listening together to the promise and commission that are part of Christ's final words before his ascension: "You are witnesses of these things."

As the centennial of a landmark mission event approaches in 2010, a global study process is mobilizing churches, theological institutions and mission bodies around the world.

After six days of intense discussions on migration, the conflict in Sri Lanka and climate change, of common prayer and practical efforts to make the voice of the churches on these issues heard at the United Nations, the UN Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ended with good results on Friday.

The Philippines - a country where approximately a tenth of the population is indigenous and lives in isolated areas where access to basic services and opportunities for economic growth is lacking even as natural resources abound - will be the meeting place for some 30 indigenous theologians from the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Churches in Korea who used to be at the "receiving end" of mission efforts are being transformed to become a "missioning" or sending church, according to representatives of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) who met with WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in Geneva, Switzerland on 14 October.

Hook up now to a major ecumenical happening, due to start in just three months!

"As custodians of an ancient spiritual heritage, Ethiopian Christianity has a unique contribution which is of central importance in Africa and to the ecumenical family world-wide," stated the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, during his first official visit to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, 24-30 September 2005.

By Rosina Duarte (*)

In 2005, for the second year running, churches representing over 560 million Christians world-wide are being invited to mark the UN International Day of Peace, 21 September, as an International Day of Prayer for Peace.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will meet Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, 16 June. The encounter, which includes a private audience, is the first meeting between the two since they took up their current positions. A press conference is scheduled at 12:30 the same day, after the meeting.

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<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Orthodox pre-Assembly meeting

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Where is the ecumenical movement going in the 21st century?

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