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 “We pray for Africa, especially for Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo where violence and suffering are a tragic reality,” was the prayer from Nairobi at an International Day of Prayer for Peace event sponsored by the All-Africa Conference of Churches.

How does the church interact with a rapidly changing society? On 31 August, members of the World Council of Churches Central Committee spent much of the morning discussing this question in a pair of plenary sessions in Geneva.

"Living Letters" from member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Burundi, Brazil, Greece and the United States will come to Germany, 27 June - 4 July, for an exchange of experiences in overcoming violence.

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.

A unique gathering of high level church leaders to start Tuesday 6 November near Nairobi, Kenya, features the broadest range of Christian traditions ever represented at a global meeting, allowing for a discussion of unprecedented ecumenical breadth on what Christians are called to do - together if possible - in the world today.

A newly appointed commission with representatives of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and several Christian World Communions met for the first time, affirming the complementary witness of ecumenical partners.

Six committed ecumenists, each with significant experience in specific fields of ecumenical endeavour, have been appointed to take up key leadership roles within the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC). The newly appointed staff members will head five programmes plus a planning and integration office, all of which are the result of programmatic reshaping following the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006 .

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.

by Walt Wiltschek (*)

By Heather Chappell (*)

(*) By Juan Michel

By Walt Wiltschek (*)

Aboriginal representatives of Canadian churches, devastated by residential school scandals which have resulted in lawsuits against them totaling millions of dollars, told Rev. Dr Sam Kobia, WCC general secretary, that they must work together ecumenically if they are to bring hope and healing to the country’s First Nations, most of whom have had church connections for centuries.

Cf. WCC Press Release PR-03-27 of 11 August 2003

The US-declared war on terrorism, still widely popular in the United States but subject to increasing scepticism elsewhere in the world, will be the focus of an international ecumenical meeting in Washington, D.C., 5-6 August.