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The World Council of Churches (WCC) is inviting the public, media, and all people of goodwill to join in a Midday Prayer on 20 March. Prayers will focus on grieving family, friends and colleagues who lost loved ones from UN agencies, the WCC and other organizations who perished in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash on 10 March.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is inviting the public, media, and all people of goodwill to join in a Midday Prayer on 20 March. Prayers will focus on grieving family, friends and colleagues who lost loved ones from UN agencies, the WCC and other organizations who perished in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash on 10 March.

After 157 people perished when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on 10 March soon after taking off near Addis Ababa, the World Council of Churches expressed deep sympathy and extended prayers for those who lost loved ones.

Ours is a world of migration. Yet myths and mystification persist in our understanding of the journey – particularly when it comes to transmittable diseases such as HIV.

Hundreds of high-ranking Russian orthodox clergy along with representatives of some other churches, government and state institutions gathered for a Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on 1 February, celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Local Council and enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sent greetings to hundreds of young people from the Taize community as they gathered in Madrid from 28 December to 1 January to reflect on the theme “Let Us Not Forget Hospitality!”

WCC News met with the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dr Alexi Chehadeh, who leads the Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East in Damascus, Syria. He is an impressive role model and peacemaker in Syria.

Dr Cecile De Sweemer, who served as staff of the Christian Medical Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1982 to 1986, died on the 27 November in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). De Sweemer, a Belgian medical doctor with a doctorate in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, with extensive experience in Asia and Africa, was a dedicated and compassionate physician.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), ACT Alliance and the German Protestant development service Bread for the World are appealing to world leaders to take swift and coordinated action to limit global warming to 1.5°C degrees as a humanitarian and ethical obligation.

Participants at the conference “Xenophobia, Racism and Populist Nationalism in the Context of Global Migration” released a message on 19 September that affirms and upholds the institution of asylum for those fleeing from war, persecution or natural disaster, and invokes respect for the rights for all people on the move.

The conference, held in Rome, was organized jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

For Marijke van Duin it was culture shock on two levels: being in sub-Saharan Africa, attending a huge international conference. Both for the first time. The Dutch Mennonite experienced confrontation, transformation and hope at the WCC 8th Assembly in Harare…and made a friendship that transcended borders.

There are currently over 65 million people around the world who have been forced from their homes, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, but all those who are displaced are not mere statistics. They are people, something that can be missed by the mass media in reporting on them. This observation was highlighted in a discussion at the WCC on 30 January when representatives of church groups, the United Nations and a Christian media organization discussed media coverage of refugees at a “tray-lunch” presentation.

This week world leaders are gathered in Davos under the very theme of “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”. They do so at a time when we see poverty amongst plenty; hunger and thirst in the midst of abundance; shocking disparities in the quality of life between neighboring communities: real problems that the world has the potential and the possibilities to resolve.

Faith groups gathered at the Ecumenical Centre on 16 January to evaluate from faith and human rights perspectives the outcomes of the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP 23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They discussed the role of faith-based organizations in the Talanoa Dialogue emerging from COP 23 and began to cooperate for effective and meaningful faith-based engagement in COP 24.

"I think it is wonderful that ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, we really need this when we see what today’s superpowers are doing. We all want peace on earth!"

In a keynote speech during the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I termed their purpose “a fresh deliberation on the fate of the earth.”

For Father James Oyet-Latansio the South Sudan Council of Churches general secretary admits that in his country the churches are serving “in a difficult time, but we serve wherever we are needed”. He was taking a breather during the 3-6 October Ecumenical Strategic Forum on Diakonia and Sustainable Development convened by the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

Friday evening when the leaders of the G20 states will be meeting in Hamburg and discussing global economic, social, environmental and political issues, the churches in Germany are inviting people in Germany and all over the world to a common peace prayer.

As part of a Call to Action issued just before an annual meeting of the leaders of the world’s largest economies, the WCC, ACT Alliance and All Africa Conference of Churches urged G20 leaders to take action to overcome hunger and sustain justice and peace in the Horn of Africa.

New hope for world’s tropical forests arises as the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist leaders join indigenous forest guardians to launch global effort to end deforestation. Interfaith rainforest initiative, created by global coalition to fight escalating threats to endangered forests in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America is vital to slowing climate change.