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The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit met with Archbishop Chrysostomos II of the Church of Cyprus and the president of Cyprus, Dr Demetris Christofias, in separate meetings Thursday in Nicosia.

On the final morning of its proceedings the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee adopted a resolution concerning the escalating violence in Libya condemning the use of force on all sides and calling for the respect for human rights of all people in Libya.

Jamaica – a proud and independent Caribbean nation struggling with a high level of violence and criminality – is the location of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) facilitated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 17 to 25 May 2011.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) takes new steps to promote Christian unity and inter-religious harmony, will the challenges of organizational governance and re-structuring drain “the life out of the ecumenical movement”?

“There is no theological reflection that does not take place in God’s vulnerable world and in the midst of the joy and suffering of ordinary people,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in his report to the first meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee that he has addressed as general secretary.

The annual observation of a world-wide Interfaith Harmony Week has been scheduled for the first seven days of February beginning in 2011. One of the groups that has endorsed the initiative was a global consultation of Muslim and Christian organizations addressing the topic “Transforming Communities” in November 2010. The consultation was convened at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva and was jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Islamic Call Society and A Common Word.

Some 40 theologians, most of them indigenous and representing different regions of the world, will meet in La Paz, Bolivia this weekend to share their various experiences and theological reflections.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, made his first formal visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams on Friday 14 January 2011. Tveit led a delegation from the WCC to a meeting with the archbishop and other senior leaders of the Church of England at Church House, Westminster, London, the administrative headquarters of the Church of England.

Christian-Muslim dialogue and cooperation were themes of a two-day visit by the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to the offices and college campus of the World Islamic Call Society (WICS) in Tripoli, Libya. On Sunday 9 January, Tveit and two WCC colleagues met with WICS leaders to discuss bilateral dialogue, exploring ways to follow up a November 2010 conference in Geneva on “Transforming Communities”.

Visitors from the Geneva offices of the World Council of Churches (WCC) were honoured to be received in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday 8 January 2011 by Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, led the group to Cairo in order to offer personal condolences in the aftermath of the lethal bomb attack at the New Year on a church in Alexandria.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) condemns the vicious attack on innocent worshippers in the Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt when a bomb was detonated at the conclusion of the celebration of a New Year’s midnight mass. As a result, at least 21 people have been killed and more than 80 injured.

New models of theological education involving migrant churches are an imperative for Christianity in the 21 st century. This was one of the key convictions expressed at a joint international consultation of the programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) of the WCC and the Academy of Mission at the University of Hamburg , Germany.

Thirty representatives of Orthodox institutions gathered in mid-November 2010 at the Andrei Saguna theological faculty in Sibiu, Romania to reflect on the topic “The Ecumenical Movement in Theological Education and the Life of Orthodox Churches”. This discussion was moderated by Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Peace as a universal human right has been the focus of an international congress co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The WCC worked in collaboration with the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law (SSIHRL), Forum 2010 and the Institute for Peace Studies (Alexandria, Egypt) to organize the International Congress on the Human Right to Peace, held on 9-10 December 2010 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

By Aneth Lwakatare (*)

A World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation on ecumenical accompaniment in Colombia was held in Geneva on 2-3 December. Participants affirmed the ecumenical commitment to strengthen the peace process in Colombia. The consultation decided to explore ways to initiate an international ecumenical accompaniment programme in Colombia as a contribution to the Colombian peace process.

Natividad Llanquileo is a young woman from the Mapuche people, an indigenous group that makes up some 4 percent of the Chilean population. In late November, she visited Geneva – seat of the United Nations Human Rights Council and other UN bodies – to inform the international organizations about the ongoing negotiations between the representatives of the Mapuche political prisoners and the Chilean government.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, met in a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Saturday for nearly a quarter of an hour. The two church leaders discussed a number issues including visible church unity and the situation of Christians in the Middle East. "We had a very open and friendly conversation," Tveit said after the audience. "He emphasized in a very kind and also a very strong way the importance of the World Council of Churches' work and the ministry I am called to do as general secretary."

Pope Benedict XVI will welcome the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches since January of this year, to a private audience at the Vatican on Saturday 4 December.

By Tara Tautari *