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Signing a celebratory certificate commemorating 25 years of fruitful dialogue, leaders from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Tehran met online on 27 October.

In a statement released 16 October, an interfaith e-consultation is deepening calls for releasing countries in the Global South from damaging external debt burdens. 

The World Council of Churches is publishing a series of interviews that portray insights and reflections from the leaders of faith-based global and regional humanitarian and development organizations. Rev. Dr Karin Achtelstetter is executive director of Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR).

A panel of experts of different faiths spoke on debt cancellation and reparations as tools for promoting justice, sustainability and life-affirming economies in the third 2020 Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management public webinar held on 2 October.

Conflict has ingrained itself in the people of Mozambique for many decades from the days of Portuguese colonial rule, to the ensuing civil war which only ended this century, and now Daesh along with the unseen enemy of COVID-19. So, the churches have their hands full as peacemakers.

It has been 46 years since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus led to the partitioning of the island, the northern third inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and the southern two-thirds by Greek Cypriots, whose government is internationally recognized. The August 1974 ceasefire line became a United Nations buffer zone, along which Cyprus remains divided.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with an estimated 210 million people, has a distinctive mix of people with almost equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, most of whom get on, living their normal lives intertwined in peace, except when terror strikes.

The Lutheran World Federation and Islamic Relief Worldwide issued on 11 May a call on all parties to lay down arms, institute an immediate ceasefire, and ensure humanitarian access in order to protect people from COVID-19.

During Easter in Jerusalem, the Via Dolorosa, the last path of Jesus on his way to crucifixion, has been deserted over Holy Week, but the famous celebration of Holy Fire celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus will not be virtual like many of the Easter church services for people.

As the so-called “Islamic State” claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sikh temple complex in Kabul, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned the attack and offered condolences to those who have lost loved ones.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit received Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim in the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. In their meeting, the religious leaders engaged in in-depth dialogue to promote peaceful relations among diverse communities, religious freedom, values for equal citizenship and key aspects of peacebuilding and interreligious dialogue, paying special attention to combating religious extremism leading to violence in many parts of the world.

Father Jacques Mourad is a monk and priest of the community of Mar Moussa in Syria. He is very active in Islamic-Christian dialogue and belongs to the diocese of Homs of the Syriac Catholic Church. In 2015, he was captured and held hostage by the Islamic State, before escaping with the help of Muslims. During Advent, Father Mourad visited the Ecumenical Centre, where he led a special midday prayer for peace in Syria and the Middle East.

On 30 January, the Church Council of the Church of Norway appointed World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit as the new presiding bishop for the Church of Norway.