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World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay continued his visit in Lebanon on 21 March, focusing on meeting with heads of churches to pray and work together. 

Faith-based and humanitarian groups across the world were setting in motion appeals for aid and prayers as response expands in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on 6 February.

From 31 August to 8 September, thousands of Christians converged on the German city of Karlsruhe for the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, the first in Europe since Uppsala in 1968.

On 15 December, Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches paid a visit to His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of the Antioch and All the East at the patriarchal residence in Balamand, Lebanon.  

The World Council of Churches (WCC) wrapped up its 65th central committee meeting in Geneva on 29 June, its first online session with many of proceedings carried out via video conference, and the moderator Dr Agnes Abuom declaring “we have agreed, basically, on the programme for 11th Assembly.”

In a special message to World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee received on 27 June, H.B. John X, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, affirmed “closeness in prayer, and in accompanying the work of the meeting through the communication with the devoted delegates of the Holy and Apostolic Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East.”

The WCC Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration issued a communique on 9 April calling for the release of two metropolitans of Aleppo, His Eminence Boulos (Yazigi), from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and His Eminence Mor Youhanna Gregorios (Ibrahim) from the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.

The WCC Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration is meeting from 5-10 April at the Patriarchal Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand in Lebanon.

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.

From 14-16 December in the UK, the CEC and Cumberland Lodge held a conference titled "Towards Peaceful co-existence in the Middle East: challenges and opportunities." Co-hosted by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, the gathering drew participants from a broad range of Middle Eastern and European churches.

As Kerala, the southern state of India, nicknamed “God’s Own Country,” battles one of the worst flood disasters in a century, various religious communities have opened their doors to help homeless people.

Work for the unity of the church is inseparable from work for the unity of the human community and the whole of creation, according to the director of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church, concluded a maiden apostolic visit to the Sultanate of Oman. The highlight of the five-day visit was the consecration of the new church, Mor Shmouni, in Ghala, Muscat, Oman, on 10 May.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at its meeting in Trondheim, Norway, 27 June 2016, has elected a new executive committee with 11 new members.

Orthodox primates have attended a meeting chaired by the Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, in Chambésy, Geneva, Switzerland, and set a June date for a larger Orthodox convocation, the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church.