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Thirty participants including migration activists, leaders of migrant churches and representatives of ecumenical organizations from Africa, Europe and the Middle East are currently seeking an ecumenical response to migration at a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference in Beirut, Lebanon.

Around 214 million people in the world are on the move, seeking livelihood and security outside their home countries. To address this global phenomenon of multi-directional migration, and respond to the political, economic, ethical and ecclesiological challenges it poses, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is organizing a regional conference in Lebanon from 5-7 December.

Myanmar was visited by an ecumenical solidarity team representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 4 to 9 August 2011 as part of the council’s commitment to accompany churches in conflict situations. This was a follow-up to a WCC Living Letters team visit to Myanmar in late 2010.

Fourteen-year old Gudiya Putul is not in Kingston, Jamaica attending the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC), but her name and history were brought to the attention of some IEPC participants Saturday during a workshop about economic injustice and human trafficking.

Sofía Chipana Quispe is part of the first generation of her family born in the city. Her parents migrated to La Paz, Bolivia, from the Andean mountain rural areas before she was born in 1952.

The World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches and the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe have expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Libya.

Father Daniel Groody, a professor from Notre Dame University in the United States and a Roman Catholic priest, presented a theological approach to the topic of migration at a Tuesday 8 March gathering in the library of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva.

By Theodore Gill*

At the 50th meeting since its foundation in 1946, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) decided to refocus, establishing four thematic working groups, in order better to respond to the needs of the member churches.

Churches' attitudes and responses to racism today will come under scrutiny at a conference, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and Dutch missionary and diaconal agency Kerk in Actie , in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 26-29 August.

In times of exploding budget deficits and unemployment figures, migrants are often used as scapegoats for all the ailings and failings of society. In such a context it is the task of the church to uphold the human rights and dignity of all.

"We believe that this is a moment where we are invited by God to commit ourselves to be instruments of change in the church and the wider society," participants in an international conference on "Churches against Racism" have said, 17 June. The message was read in the presence of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands during a closing worship service.

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the exploitation of the migrants' work.

German churches' experience with the issue of "domestic violence" will play an important role in a Peace Declaration of the World Council of Churches planned for 2011. "The churches have denied the existence of this issue for a long time", said Georges Lemopoulos, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), speaking on Saturday 28 June in Frankfurt.

"Islam cannot be studied like grammar," Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria, told a delegation led by Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who had come to Syria wishing to learn from the country's long experience of Christians and Muslims living peacefully together. "We have to see the real people and share with them. Muslims are sharing with you by living in your countries. Why do you ignore them?" the patriarch asked particularly the delegation members from Europe and the United States at the outset of their 19 to 22 April visit.

Appreciation for the good work done by churches in the Gulf region was expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia at the end of a 17 to 19 April visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Baldwin Sjollema, first director of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Programme to Combat Racism (PCR), received the Oliver Tambo Order from South African president Thabo Mbeki on 16 June 2004 in Pretoria.

"The power and promise of peace" is the compelling theme for activities to be carried out this year within the framework of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) 2004 focus on the USA. A Monday 12 January worship service will mark the opening of a year dedicated to strengthening and resourcing churches and movements working for peace in the USA.