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The people of South Sudan are experiencing the most difficult time in their history of suffering and self-destruction, says the South Sudan Council of Churches, reaching out with an Advent and Christmas message of hope.

The WCC Executive Committee met in Amman, Jordan from 17-23 November to approve the 2018 plan and budget and prepare for renewal of the WCC strategic plan. The Executive Committee also discerned the way forward for the WCC’s involvement in Palestine and Israel by learning more about the particular situation in Jordan and the Middle East, then discussing the challenges of the churches and the WCC response. The Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, All Palestine and Jordan, Theophilos III, welcomed the group.

A consultation in Arusha, Tanzania, has issued a communique entitled “Sustainable Peace in Burundi.” The meeting, organized by the World Council of Churches and the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, drew together Burundian religious leaders on 18-19 October.

Church leaders in Kenya are proposing a national dialogue conference to help find ways of the resolving the current political and social crises facing the East African nation.

Relations between the WCC and the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue in Tehran go back more than 20 years. One recent fruit of this relationship has been the developing links between the WCC and the University of Religions and Denominations in the Iranian holy city of Qom.

Meeting on 12-15 September in Lisbon, Portugal, the Joint Working Group (JWG) of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church focused its work on peace-building and the concerns of migrants.

Following North Korea’s 6th nuclear weapon test on Sunday 3 September, the World Council of Churches (WCC) redoubled its calls to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula through negotiation rather than spiraling confrontation.

On the occasion of the forthcoming 1 September, observed as the "Day for the Protection of Creation", His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued a message calling upon “all people of good will to undertake the good struggle for the protection of the natural environment and the establishment of solidarity.”

As the recent developments of nuclear weapons and increased tensions between United States and North Korea leaders can bring the world to the brink of war, churches around the world are calling for bilateral dialogue, expressing their commitment to peace and nonviolent resolution.

In the wake of new sanctions on North Korea that could reduce the country’s annual export revenues by one third, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed concern over whether those sanctions demonstrate any positive impact in bringing a return to negotiations or preventing its development of nuclear weapons.

Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, offered her reflections on the concept of reformation at a seminar during St Olav’s Festival in July.

As a WCC-convened forum on peace on the Korean Peninsula came to a close, participants from around the world, representing many churches, vowed to work together in accompanying the Christians of North and South Korea in their efforts for peace, reconciliation, and development.

The World Council of Churches has welcomed the signing of two ecumenical statements by the World Communion of Reformed Churches in which it seeks to overcome divisions of the past and to work with other Christian communions for unity and common witness.

Nayla Tabbara is a Sunni Muslim scholar. Fadi Daou is a Maronite priest and theologian. Both are from Lebanon. Together they have discovered something startling about God.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, delivered a public address at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 24 April as part of his official visit to Switzerland on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his enthronement as Ecumenical Patriarch and the 50th anniversary of the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy.

Greta Nania-Montoya Ortega has an enthusiastic message for young people considering signing up for the 2018 Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI): “Do not miss this unique opportunity. It will change your life!”

Members of a church-backed coalition have called on Indonesia to open access to West Papua for international journalists, independent observers, human rights organizations and the International Red Cross.

What is the future of Christianity in Europe and how could evangelism be relevant to the radically changing realities of European people today, are among the main issues addressed in the newly published volume “Sharing Good News: Handbook on Evangelism in Europe”.

At the close of the 50th year since promulgation of Vatican II’s declaration on Christian relations with other religions, relations between Christians and Jews, and between Christians and Muslims, are freshly explored in the just-released issue of Current Dialogue.