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Churches around the world will pray for the peoples of the Pacific as an international church initiative against violence focuses attention on the region this year. Pacific churches themselves will pray and reflect together on how best to promote peace in their communities.

Today in Jerusalem, at the launch of a worldwide week of action for peace in Israel and Palestine, different churches will come together for an ecumenical service giving thanks for "every church and parish around the world that is praying with us this day for peace".

By Juan Michel (*) Â

Based on a candid assessment of how two decades of war have affected them, Sudanese youth told church leaders what they need most: skills training, jobs and means of participating in shaping their country's future. Sudanese women, in turn, spoke out about their vulnerability, increased by war and cultural patterns.

"We remain committed to work side by side with the churches", the president of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit told representatives of an international ecumenical delegation in Juba, Southern Sudan, on 3 April 2008.

Sudanese churches stand at a crossroads, said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. On the one hand, they face a transition from liberation fight to rebuilding their homes and communities. On the other, they live in a country where Islam and Christianity cross paths and the relationship between the two is vital.

By Juan Michel (*)

Amid ongoing fighting and humanitarian crises in several regions of Sudan, and risks of failure in implementing the 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war between north and south, the Sudanese people and churches face "tremendous tasks and challenges", an international ecumenical team of church representatives was told at the beginning of an eight-day solidarity visit to the country.

An international ecumenical team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches and ecumenical organizations in Sudan from 26 March to 2 April. The team led by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will split in four groups to visit Darfur, Khartoum, Rumbek and Yambio before joining Sudanese church leaders, women and youth for a three-day conference in Juba.

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"Make me a channel of your peace" was the theme for a celebration of common commitment to overcome violence at a gathering of Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church representatives on 17 February in Wittenberg, Germany.

The main points of focus for the 2007 Decade to Overcome Violence focus on Europe will be migration and working on a theology of a just peace.

:: World AIDS Day events in Geneva and Bern

Does the quest for religious identity, evident in many places around the world today, lead inevitably to opposition to other religious traditions? And how, in contexts of religious and cultural plurality, can we move beyond tolerance to positive respect between religions?

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» African church leaders visit Israel & Palestine

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» World youth prepares for mission

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Where is the ecumenical movement going in the 21st century?

By Martin Smedjeback (*)

By Martin Smedjeback *