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The diminishing religious diversity in the Middle East was discussed as a threat to the stability of the region on Monday 21 April meeting between a WCC delegation and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"Migration is a human concern, not a Muslim or a Christian one, and therefore Christians and Muslims must act on it together." Representatives of Lebanon's six most numerous faith communities shared this view as the Public Hearing on Migration and the Changing Ecclesial Landscape was officially opened in Beirut on April 14.

"We remain committed to work side by side with the churches", the president of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit told representatives of an international ecumenical delegation in Juba, Southern Sudan, on 3 April 2008.

By Juan Michel (*)

The movie Fitna, recently released online by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders was criticized as "a clear case of Islamophobia" by Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, director of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Programme on Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation.

A new World Council of Churches (WCC) initiative aimed at supporting Christians living in conflict situations around the world has begun. "When one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it," Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the WCC said in a videotaped address to experts in international relations and ecumenical partners at a recent consultation held in Geneva, 8-10 December.

Two outstanding personalities, known to the ecumenical family for their achievements in faith-based advocacy and interfaith dialogue, have been engaged by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) to complete its leadership team. The newly appointed staff members will head the programme on Public witness and the programme on Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. The appointments complete a reconfiguration of the WCC staff leadership due to programmatic reshaping after the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006 .

The members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) have been asked to engage "their own governments over the need to break the international silence on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and provide greater assistance to displaced and refugee Iraqis".

Six committed ecumenists, each with significant experience in specific fields of ecumenical endeavour, have been appointed to take up key leadership roles within the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC). The newly appointed staff members will head five programmes plus a planning and integration office, all of which are the result of programmatic reshaping following the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006 .

By Stephen Webb and Yannick Provost (*) [Corrected version of the interview distributed on 11 September]