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The WCC invites its member churches, faith-based organizations and civil society to observe the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel from 22 to 28 September, invoking prayers, action and advocacy for justice and peace in Palestine.

“We do not live in the mentality of the ghetto, nor in the mentality of a minority complex, nor do we live as dhimmi (dependent) people,” said Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan. “We have always been, as Arab Christians, building our societies, loyal to our countries and nationalities, bringing hope in hopeless situations.”

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary has expressed deep sorrow over the death of Armenian Apostolic Patriarch Torkom II Manoogian, primate of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Torkom II passed away on 12 October at the age of 96.

To mark the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (WWPPI), Palestinian Christians will celebrate holy communion on Friday, 1 June in the orchard of the historic Cremisan monastery near Bethlehem. It is an area where Israel plans to confiscate land in order to extend its illegal separation barrier outside Jerusalem.

When the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit attends a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, Italy on 27 October, he will be accompanied by Clare Amos of the Church of England the new WCC programme executive for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.

As part of a week-long series of events to promote a just peace in Israel and Palestine, Palestinians and Israelis will be praying for peace in front of several Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the separation wall and in houses of worship in Jerusalem and across Palestine.

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 Theodore A. Gill (*)Â

Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land need to go beyond a mere homage to ancient sites and instead show concern for the Palestinian people living there, whose lives are severely constricted by the Israeli occupation of their land.Â

World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, said the endorsement by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem of the “Kairos Palestine” document “adds integrity, authority and force to the message of the document.”