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Lecture at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, on 17 November 2006, by Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Order of service for morning prayers at the Ecumenical Centre, focusing on health workers and the congregations' role in providing health and healing.

Plenary on youth overcoming violence: Presentation by Olara A. Otunnu, president of the LBL Foundation for Children and former UN under-secretary-general and special representative for children and armed conflict.

"Final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC" : The 60-member Special Commission was created by the WCC's eighth assembly in 1998 in response to mainly Orthodox concerns about participation in the Council. Composed of an equal number of representatives from Orthodox churches and from the other churches belonging to the WCC, the Commission submitted its final report to the central committee in September 2002.

"Religious plurality and Christian self-understanding" : The question of the theological approach to religious plurality had been on the agenda of the WCC many times, reaching a certain consensus in 1989 and 1990.1 In recent years, it was felt that this difficult and controversial issue needed to be revisited. The present document is the result of a study process in response to suggestions made in 2002 at the WCC central committee to the three staff teams on Faith and Order, Inter-religious Relations, and Mission and Evangelism, and their respective commissions or advisory bodies.

This text (Faith and Order Paper no. 201) results from the study on Ethnic Identity, National Identity, and the Search for the Unity of the Church done by Faith and Order with the collaboration of the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation team. It offers resources for churches in situations of tension or conflict, especially where ethnic and national tensions are major factors, and suggests how Christian unity can further the churches' witness for reconciliation and justice.

Hauptziel dieser Studie ist es, das zum Ausdruck zu bringen, was die Kirchen zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt zu Wesen und Auftrag der Kirche gemeinsam sagen können, und innerhalb dieser Übereinstimmung zu untersuchen, in welchem Maße die die Kirchen weiterhin trennenden Fragen überwunden werden können.
Bei dem vorangegangenen Text Taufe, Eucharistie und Amt lief der Prozess auf einen Text hinaus, der als eine Konvergenzerklärung verstanden werden konnte. Der vorliegende Text soll den Kirchen erlauben, erste Schritte auf dem Weg zur Feststellung einer solchen Konvergenz zu machen, wie sie sich mittlerweile in einem multilateralen Kontext herausgebildet hat.

This extended text (about 18,000 words) was published in December 2005 and is the latest result from Faith and Order's study on Ecclesiology. It seeks to express common convictions about the church, its nature and mission, and to identify the ecclesiological issues which continue to divide the churches today. The text has been sent officially to the churches for evaluation and response; study groups and individuals are also invited to offer comments and reactions. This text replaces the previous study document The Nature and Purpose of the Church (Faith and Order Paper no. 181, issued in 1998).