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A team of church representatives from Europe, Latin America and Africa will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in Uruguay and Bolivia from 9 to 16 July. A second team will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo at the same time.

At the third meeting of the Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) between Christian World Communions (CWCs) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), the agenda focused on a mid-term review of the work accomplished so far in this growing ecumenical partnership. The 14-member commission also looked toward continued collaboration in the future. Â

Speaking at the Third Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan, 1 July, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said that religious leaders should play a role in building a peaceful society as living models of dialogue and by encouraging youth initiatives.

An upcoming meeting of 120 theologians from nearly all Christian traditions will be looking at what churches consider to be their mission in the world and how they come to decisions on theological, ecumenical or moral questions.

The recent incidents of violence in Bagua, Peru are "but one instance of a series of government actions to abrogate the rights of the Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon over land and resources", stated the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a 9 June letter to President Alan García Pérez.

No doubt the global financial crisis is and will continue impacting negatively all regions of the world, but according to an advisory body of the World Council of Churches (WCC) it also represents an opportunity to deeply transform the international financial system for good.

Representatives of the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) have expressed their hope that state representatives at the World Water Forum taking place in Istanbul, 16-22 March, will affirm access to water as a human right.

Some forty-five religious, interfaith, and value-based organizations from five continents agreed to form a coalition to advance a "United Nations Decade for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding, and Cooperation for Peace." Coalition members expressed the hope that the UN Sixty-Fourth General Assembly, which will begin its deliberations in September 2009, will approve a resolution establishing such a decade from 2011-2020.

During her first visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, the president of the Focolare movement Dr Maria Emmaus Voce invited the staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and other ecumenical organizations to live out the words of Jesus Christ so "that they give us that unity which bears witness to God in the world."

In one of the most far-reaching theological curriculum reforms worldwide, the Senate of Serampore College in Madurai, India has developed a curriculum based on three pillars: contextual education, interdisciplinary dialogue and social relevance.

Representatives of churches in Iraq confirmed their commitment to work together with all Iraqi citizens for reconciliation and rebuilding peace in the country.

In a letter congratulating Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on his election as the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed the appreciation of the worlwide ecumenical fellowship for this "outstanding Orthodox theologian, leader and hierarch".

Equal participation and shared responsibility in society are at the basis of a peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, stated participants at an inter-religious symposium in Tehran, Iran last week. They highlighted the value of learning from each other's faith and criticized "irresponsible media".

The Mumbai terrorist attacks and an IMF agreement that will negatively impact the poor set the tone for a World Council of Churches (WCC) Living Letters team visit to Pakistan from 24 November to 1 December.

With "deep sadness" the officers of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who were meeting in Geneva this week, received word of the death of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexy II.

Rediscovering the testimonies of Christian faith men and women of different Christian traditions gave over the centuries was the goal that brought some eighty participants from a variety of traditions and countries to the Italian monastery of Bose this autumn.

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the exploitation of the migrants' work.

The Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC) has began to pursue two study processes on how churches can make their own the outcomes of ecumenical dialogues - the so called "reception process" - and on the "spiritual roots of ecumenism".

Religious freedom and interreligious dialogue will be on the agenda of an international ecumenical delegation visiting Pakistan from 24 November to 1 December. The group will discuss how churches can help ease political and religions tensions with representatives from churches, the Muslim community and government officials.

"It is impossible to preach God's love in Jesus Christ while being silent about the effects of such a grave humanitarian catastrophe," a group of church leaders told D.R. Congo President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa yesterday.