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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.

Some forty professionals working on ecumenical relations in different member churches in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East as well as North and South America, are currently gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. Their four-day meeting affords them an opportunity to learn about the various WCC programmes as well as from each other.

In an awards ceremony held at Lambeth Palace on 9 June, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby presented a Lambeth Cross for Ecumenism to Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee.

In the wake of the highly-anticipated Chilcot report, the World Council of Churches (WCC) stands by its original position, first adopted in 2002 via a wide consultative process with its member churches, that all possible efforts should have been exhausted to prevent the war in Iraq.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has strongly condemned a series of lethal terror attacks carried out in Brussels as “wicked and indiscriminate” and calling for prayers for those affected.

David Bradwell of Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees has been on a mission for the past six months trying to raise awareness on what individuals and churches can do to help those fleeing conflicts and wars.

Participants in a recent conference on the refugee crisis in Europe, hosted by the WCC, said they felt energized by the reports from a multitude of activities undertaken by churches from Lebanon to Finland through Serbia, Greece and Germany.

“We are not speaking of people leaving one less-than-affluent suburb to go to a more affluent one because they seek a better quality of life; these are people leaving war-torn, poverty-stricken and conflict-filled near-anarchic states to find protection and safety for themselves and for their families.”

Following the WCC/UN High Level Conference on the Refugee Crisis in Europe, which took place at the Ecumenical Centre Geneva on 18-19 January, a statement has been issued entitled "Europe’s Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action”.

Capitalizing on momentum from the recent COP21 accord in Paris was the focus of a meeting of the WCC general secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace on 16 December.

Mere days after terror attacks in Beirut and Paris, the theme of an interfaith meeting of Christians and Muslims at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on “Religion, Peace and Violence” was entirely appropriate, said participants.

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby generously granted an interview on the subject of “the pilgrimage of justice and peace” last week in São Paulo, Brazil. His visit to Brazil was part of a personal journey that has taken Welby to 31 Anglican provinces around the world since his enthronement as archbishop in 2013.

Around 400 international participants representing diverse religious traditions at the Sant’Egidio community's 28th International Meeting of People and Religions in Antwerp, Belgium, focused on the theme “Peace is the Future”. The meeting featured dialogue, prayers and reflections on cultures and religions, including on 9 September an address from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.