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With the help of participants from several regions of the world a World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation recently looked at Christian self-understanding in the context of indigenous spiritual traditions.

The world has changed since 1958. In that year members of the International Missionary Council met in Achimota, Ghana and proposed to move their operation into the WCC, then one decade old.

Dr Rommel F. Linatoc reflected on the issues of water and sanitation from an ecumenical perspective in the Philippines, speaking in an interview at the Global Forum of the Ecumenical Water Network. The theme of the forum, which took place from 25-27 October in Nairobi, Kenya, was "Like a tree planted by the water".

After a meeting with Ricardo Patiño, minister of Foreign Affair, Trade and Integration of Ecuador, World Council of Churches (WCC) officials call the Yasuni Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) initiative of the Ecuador government a courageous model of development.

Sofía Chipana Quispe is part of the first generation of her family born in the city. Her parents migrated to La Paz, Bolivia, from the Andean mountain rural areas before she was born in 1952.

Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia, is home to more than 11,000 people, whose very existence, which at one time was tied to the ocean and its bounty, is now threatened by rising ocean water levels.

Five general secretaries of international ecumenical organizations engaged in lively conversation with leaders of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on Friday 8 April, the final day of the EKD Council’s visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. The general secretaries are heads of the ACT Alliance, the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

by Theodore Gill (*)

"To launch together a new beginning for common mission in the 21st century" is the challenge put before participants at an international mission conference taking place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, from 2-6 June.

In an ecumenical declaration to be presented at the final session of the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, Christian organizations and individuals stress the positive role that religions and spirituality can play for a more harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

Resettlement of people displaced by the consequences of climate change was highlighted as a major concern for churches at a gathering of ecumenical representatives from Asia and the Pacific region.

“Nature is our home,” said Dr. Maria Sumire Conde from the Quecha community of Peru. She says some of those who have come there, however, have not been good guests.

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.

Raising awareness about mental health among faith communities, sharing information on what they are doing in this area (best practice), and providing an ecumenical and inter-religious platform for learning on mental health in different regions will be the focus of WCC work on "mental health and faith communities" over the next few years.Â

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"Tourism, while being a potent force for good, has sadly turned into an activity that leaves in its trail massive numbers of victims", says World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Samuel Kobia in a message on World Tourism Day, 27 September.

Grace and peace to you on this Feast of Pentecost 2005, in which we celebrate the many gifts of God's Spirit!

By Hugh McCullum (*)