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Despite having a constitution which does not allow discrimination and a proactive government working for the integration of the marginalized parts of society, violence and discrimination persist in some parts of India.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have jointly called on the Prime Minister of India requesting his intervention to end the violence in the state of Orissa. The WCC invites its member churches to join a call from Christians in India to hold a Day of Prayer and Fasting for peace and goodwill on Sunday, 7 September.

Ideas for "bringing unity down to earth", "communicative action" and a "theology of the wilderness" were among the winning entries submitted for an essay contest on Prospects for Ecumenism in the 21st Century. The winners, two women and four men, come from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

In order to serve the Indian church and the people more effectively, Dalit theology needs to re-invent itself as a theology of life for all. This was one of the findings of an international symposium that brought together some 30 Dalit theologians, social activists and academics from around the globe in Kolkata, India, last week.

The legacies of the slave trade, and how churches can respond to past and present forms of slavery, are going to be discussed at an ecumenical conference to be held 10-14 December in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. About sixty theologians, church leaders, social scientists and activists, mainly from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean will gather in the country where nearly one million Africans and later indentured servants from Asia were exploited as human commodities and many more transited on their often deadly passage into slavery.

Representing the experiences, perspectives and visions of different excluded groups, a select group of 25 theologians from many parts of the world gathered in La Paz, Bolivia during May 2007, perhaps for the first time, to articulate their visions of the world and the church. Their attempt was to identify the possible thematic directions for the new programme

By Anto Akkara (*)

Photo essay available

What does cruelty have to do with theology? Some 25 theologians from all over the world will gather on 5-8 December in Crêt-Bérard (near Lausanne, Switzerland), to discuss why and to what extent cruelty can be considered as a new theme for theological reflection.