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"Final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC" : The 60-member Special Commission was created by the WCC's eighth assembly in 1998 in response to mainly Orthodox concerns about participation in the Council. Composed of an equal number of representatives from Orthodox churches and from the other churches belonging to the WCC, the Commission submitted its final report to the central committee in September 2002.

The WCC's eighth Assembly in 1998 discussed a proposal for a forum of Christian churches and ecumenical organizations that would bring together churches participating in the ecumenical movement, e.g. WCC member churches, the Catholic church, other churches, and Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent churches, as well as ecumenical and para-church organizations.

"Religious plurality and Christian self-understanding" : The question of the theological approach to religious plurality had been on the agenda of the WCC many times, reaching a certain consensus in 1989 and 1990.1 In recent years, it was felt that this difficult and controversial issue needed to be revisited. The present document is the result of a study process in response to suggestions made in 2002 at the WCC central committee to the three staff teams on Faith and Order, Inter-religious Relations, and Mission and Evangelism, and their respective commissions or advisory bodies.

An ecumenical team sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Zimbabwe, 25 September - 1 October 2005. This visit was a continuation of a long journey of accompaniment by the international ecumenical community. As such it sought to build on a number of previous visits and meetings by such ecumenical bodies as the WCC, the All African Conference of Churches (AACC) , and the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA) which have dealt with issues confronting Zimbabwe and other countries in the region.

Table of contents:
Introduction
Minute on economic measures for peace in Israel/Palestine
Human rights and languages of indigenous peoples
Countries affected by the tsunami
International Criminal Court
Detainees held at Guantanamo Bay
Iraq crisis: enhancing peace, accountability and the rule of law
Practising hospitality in an era of new forms of migration

The report of the Officers to the Central Committee is a constitutional obligation. The purpose of this report is to inform the Central Committee of the decisions taken by the Executive Committee at its meetings of 17-20 February and 24-27 August 2004, as well as those taken by the Officers at their meetings of 20-21 November 2003, 9-10 June and 28-29 November 2004.