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A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation led by WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Pillay visited New York City and Washington, DC this week, meeting with United Nations representatives, the Papal Nuncio, the National Council of Churches in North America, other church leaders, and ecumenical organizations and state officials.

Faith leaders and health service providers from across the globe gathered on 27 September for an interfaith prayer breakfast, to join their voices and commit their action to combat the spread of HIV and TB in children.

“Faith communities, in almost all humanitarian contexts, are the key sources of social capital for life-saving, transformation and hope”, says Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, in a 16 Feb. interview given shortly after his nomination as the new general secretary of ACT Alliance, a partner organization of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Canadian Lutheran World Relief and the WCC are planning joint action on refugee rights now that the Canadian church agency has been approved for WCC membership. Plans are for CLWR to collaborate with WCC on advocacy initiatives through the Ecumenical United Nations Office in New York.

Dr Samuel Kabue, executive secretary of the WCC’s Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network, an initiative of the World Council of Churches, was elected to the Committee of Experts to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities.

“Children need to know their place in the church. And that is at the front, not the back”, said Bishop Raphael Opoko from the Methodist Church of Nigeria, speaking at a round table discussion on promoting the rights of children held on 19 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

The Executive Committee of the WCC released a statement in the lead-up to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris expressing hope that the event will achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

The Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network of the WCC in collaboration with the Council for World Mission and International Disability Alliance hosted a two-day seminar on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.

A statement issued by the WCC Executive Committee on 25 November has made strong recommendations urging all countries to take special measures to protect and support refugees and displaced people from the Middle East, especially those from countries like Syria, Iraq and Israel-Palestine.

Talk about peace on the Korean peninsula part of discussions at ecumenical consultation on peace and security issues in Asia.

Working in alliance with churches is strategically important, said a UN representative at the recent assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches.

In Tahiti, an ecumenical delegation was told about the need for re-inscription of French Polynesia (Maohi Nui) on the United Nations list of countries to be decolonized.

The world's first Arms Trade Treaty is “a milestone in efforts to bring commerce in deadly weapons under much-needed controls,” according to the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Many church and civil society representatives have expressed disappointment over the lack of vision and ambition in the outcomes of the Rio+20 summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June. Yet the affirmation of the human right to water and sanitation is one aspect among others in the results that the future work of the ecumenical movement for sustainability and eco-justice can build on.

World Council of Churches (WCC) participants in the Rio+20 Conference have joined a broad religious coalition in rejecting the official outcome document of the United Nations-sponsored event.

With one month until governments negotiate the first global arms trade treaty, churches from countries most affected by unregulated trade in arms gathered from 29-31 May in Cape Town, South Africa, to make final advocacy plans.

A group of Christian leaders from Odisha (formerly Orissa), India visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) offices, sharing their experiences on working for religious freedom and lobbying for justice on behalf of religious minorities during the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.