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Churches working for peace amidst a wave of post electoral violence in Kenya will receive a pastoral and solidarity visit of an international ecumenical delegation sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 30 January to 3 February.

"So far is just a signature, now they have to walk the talk", says Munib Younan, the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, commenting on the results of the Annapolis Middle East conference hosted by the US administration on 27 November. Cautiously optimistic, he adds: "I do hope this is a serious attempt to achieve a lasting peace."

Local churches in Palestine/Israel are looking to the whole fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to play a stronger role in supporting local churches' struggles for a just peace there. This is the main finding of a delegation led by the Council's general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia that visited Palestine/Israel from 21 to 26 June. A new advocacy forum launched prior to the visit, and ecumenical accompaniment are high on the churches' list of actions in pursuit of this goal.

At the World Social Forum in Nairobi, speakers at a workshop organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) said that wealth, poverty and ecology are strongly linked to each other and to society's commitment to the common good.

A new group of 25 ecumenical accompaniers have just begun three months of working with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The group includes the first Hindu and the second Muslim to participate in the programme, the former from South Africa and the latter from the UK.

Expressing "alarm and concern" the World Council of Churches (WCC) has presented a formal protest to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland over two recent incidents involving violence by Israeli settlers against Christian volunteers participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

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by Mark Woods, Walt Wiltschek and Stephen Webb (*)

"We very much welcome what churches in Europe are saying about this avoidable crisis: diversity of religion enriches Europe," said Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia today.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the largest and oldest church on the African continent, is hosting an international ecumenical delegation headed by World Council of Churches' (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, 24-30 September 2005.

Counting the 20 new volunteers who recently arrived in Jerusalem, the total number of people to have participated in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has now passed the 200-mark, as the programme completes its third year of existence.