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As the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) gathered for its 12th Assembly in Windhoek, Namibia from 10-16 May, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit presented greetings on behalf of the World Council of Churches, a worldwide fellowship of 348 member churches which represents more than half a billion Christians around the world.

Almost 800 participants, including 324 delegates, are gathering in Windhoek from 10-16 May for the Twelfth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the highest LWF decision-making body that meets every six years. World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will address the plenary on 12 May.

International organizations are increasingly looking to develop partnerships with faith-based organizations to promote development objectives, according to a special issue of The Ecumenical Review presented at a World Council of Churches’ (WCC) meeting in Geneva.

Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land was named a recipient of the Niwano Peace Prize for his work toward interreligious dialogue among Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Jerusalem and worldwide.

Expressing concern regarding recently announced US measures related to refugee admissions and entry into the US by seven Muslim-majority countries, the World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance (ACT), and The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) affirmed that faith calls all Christians to love and welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced person - “the other.”

An interreligious consultation on “Voices of Hope for a New Era” has called for enhanced collaboration between Buddhists and Christians in a spirit of humility and honesty and in service of a shared humanity.

"Günther Gassmann's life and work reflect the ecumenical ideals of theological reflection based deeply in careful historical understanding of the Christian tradition, combined with sincere and open-minded work to address and overcome the historic divisions within the church”, wrote the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, upon the passing of Prof. Dr Günther Gassmann, on 11 January.

The Taizé religious community from the east of France is meeting over the New Year’s period in Riga, Latvia and world church leaders from many traditions have bestowed greetings of hope on its annual gathering.

The story shared by Fr Yakoub Babawe of the Oum-El-Nour Relief Committee of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Iraq’s city of Erbil moved and challenged participants at a recent meeting in Beirut.

Roman Catholics and Lutherans, in committing to forging ahead as pilgrims together, are significantly contributing to the wider ecumenical movement, acknowledged the WCC executive committee last week at its meeting in China.

A lively and youthful, but demanding, voice of the faith groups was heard clearly in the streets of Marrakech last Sunday, where a joint group from the ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches (WCC) marched among several thousand activists to demand environmental justice during the United Nations (UN) climate conference COP22.

ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches have put together a comprehensive kit to offer to the media. It highlights basic information about their some of their experts attending COP22 who are able to speak about climate change from the perspective of faith communities. We have speakers who represent a broad range of experience on climate change.

Delegations from the ACT Alliance, Lutheran World Federation and WCC at the United Nations climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco are jointly demanding a more rapid transition to a low-carbon economy based on clean energy in order to stem rising global temperatures.

As Christians around the globe begin to commemorate 500 years of Reformation, a ceremony has been held in Vatican City in honor of Lutheran World Federation (LWF) president Bishop Munib Younan, from the Evangelical Luthern Church In Jordan and the Holy Land.

Reformation has played a vital role in catalyzing and modernizing the Christian faith communities' responses to the many existential issues of humanity, showed workshops on child rights, health and food security, the plight of refugees, and ecumenical heritage on 4 November at Plaine de Plainpalais, Geneva.

Churches are probably the most powerful global civil society group, and they need to live up to this responsibility in the quest for peace, says German bishop, Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm. Bedford-Strohm, chairperson of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), was speaking at an event to promote peace in the Ecumenical Centre on 3 November.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has hailed a joint commemoration by Catholics and Lutherans of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation as a major advance in dialogue between Christian traditions.