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By George Arende (*)

While staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and sister organizations such as the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are preparing for the COP17 meeting for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa next week, the ecumenical community in Brazil is starting to think about 2012 when the UN conference Rio+20 will assess the outcomes of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

Fifteen leaders of dioceses and national church bodies in Norway, among them all 12 bishops of the Church of Norway, joined in common prayer on Wednesday morning 17 August at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva, Switzerland. They were joined in this act of worship by members of the Norwegian congregation in Geneva and staff of many church-related agencies including the ACT Alliance, Conference of European Churches, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and World Council of Churches (WCC).

Young Christians aged 18-30 years are invited to apply for a programme addressing the links between environmental and socio-economic justice which is jointly organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in the context of United Nations climate negotiations in the latter part of 2011.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, who since July 2010 has served as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), has completed his first official visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

Five general secretaries of international ecumenical organizations engaged in lively conversation with leaders of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on Friday 8 April, the final day of the EKD Council’s visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. The general secretaries are heads of the ACT Alliance, the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

“We must avoid stereotypes,” said Rev. Dr Nikolaus Schneider, chair of the council that coordinates relations and activities within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). As diverse groups encounter one another in the contemporary dynamics of world Christianity, he added, the key questions are whether the calling of the church is being fulfilled by a given community, and whether Jesus Christ is to be found there.

The Cancun Agreement, adopted by the vast majority of parties at the United Nations climate change conference (COP16) in the early morning hours of 11 December, gives guarded hope to churches and civil society groups who had called for decisive action by the world's governments. In an improvement on the process that led to the much-criticized Copenhagen Accord last year, the president of the conference managed to keep the climate negotiations in the multilateral track and make some, although insufficient, steps forward.

Jointly issued by WCC and WCRC

Violent conflict leaves wounds not only on the victim's body but also in the soul of the community. The healing of these invisible wounds was the subject of a 5-11 September regional consultation and training session for Southern African church representatives.

In a letter to Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit conveyed congratulations on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) for his recent election as president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

The Lutheran insistence on the fact "that we are one because we are sharing the one and same Christ, because we receive the same gift" is something the ecumenical movement needs now "more than ever", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit speaking in Stuttgart on 21 July.

Human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be the topic of a workshop bringing together high-level representatives of government, churches and international organisations in the country's capital Kinshasa, 13-17 April.

"The prayer of Jesus that his disciples may be one so that the world may believe (John 17:21) takes on new urgency in view of the challenges peoples and churches are facing today", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, in welcoming a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has congratulated Rev. Martin Junge on his election as general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Expressing "joy and encouragement" at the election of the Chilean theologian to the LWF's chief executive post, Kobia called him a "champion of lively partnerships in the quest for Christian unity and the building of human community".

Two global church organizations have congratulated the Durban Review Conference on the adoption of its outcome document, while regretting that the latter makes no mention of the plight of hundreds of millions of people affected by caste-based discrimination.

Caste-based discrimination in India may be 3,500 years old, but something new is unfolding. An emerging liberation movement has consciously chosen not to focus on Dalits' victimhood, but on the latent strength of the Dalit people, drawn from their own history and culture.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

Jointly issued by LWF and WCC

Recounting stories such as the alleged forced poisoning of a young couple, speakers at the Global Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits which opened in Bangkok, Thailand, on 21 March gave a face to the 3,500-year-old system of caste-based discrimination, detailing practices many would consider unthinkable in the 21st century.