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Rev. Dr Yam Kho Pau, a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and immediate past general secretary of the Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC), passed away on 25 November in Yangon.

General secretaries and other high-ranking national church leaders from nine Asian countries gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 4-7 September to pave the way for a coherent and well-coordinated Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace (PJP) Asia Focus-2019.

Whether as individual believers or as a community, it is our collective task to advocate for Christian unity, says Melanio L. Aoanan from the Philippines. A clear vision for religious and ecumenical theological education is needed that is relevant in the 21st century.

More than 500 participants from all over the world gathered this morning for the opening of the Asia Mission Conference in Yangon, Myanmar. The conference, the fourth of its kind since the founding of the Christian Conference of Asia in 1957, marks an important opportunity to bring together churches, faith-based organizations and partners to reflect upon mission in an Asian context. The conference is organized by CCA and hosted by the the Myanmar Council of Churches and Myanmar Baptist Convention, both CCA members.

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), on 11-12 July, held an international consultation on “Towards Revitalising the Ecumenical Movement in Asia.” The gathering of 60 church and ecumenical leaders was organised by the CCA at its headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand as a prelude to its Diamond Jubilee celebration.

The Philippines has long been noticed for crimes committed against its people, but now human rights violations of the government of President Roderigo Duterte are coming under scrutiny at the Human Rights Council after submissions made by church-backed civil society groups.

To galvanize the international community on the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines, the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted a photo exhibit on 4-5 May.

Athena Peralta is dedicated to observing and encouraging people who are defending their livelihood and defending creation across the world. “There is so much injustice in this world that it is really something beautiful to learn about and be able to accompany, even in tiny ways, struggles of communities and churches,” she said.

Four short videos sharing challenges and examples of how churches and church leaders can make a profound difference in global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat are now available for individual inspiration and group discussion.

The globalization of the world economy has not been an even process, and in many ways governance for the protection of capital has overtaken governance for the protection of human well-being. A recent Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management for an Economy of Life addressed this very asymmetry.

Thirty-five years into the response to HIV and AIDS, it remains a disease that not only thrives on, but exploits the lines of exclusion and inequality in society. In the Philippines, where there has been an alarming increase in people testing positive for HIV, the country’s National Council of Churches recognized that more than words were needed. While dialogue and debate were important, they needed to translate into action, given the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in Filipino society, and a faith-based and societal milieu still dominated by a sex-negative theology.

Kerlan Fanagel’s submission to the Human Rights Council (HRC), delivered on the council’s 10th anniversary, highlighted the plight of the Lumad in Mindanao, a group of people who have been displaced from their traditional lands in the southern Philippines.

Churches are engaged at the grassroots level throughout the world in the response to HIV and AIDS, but the struggle against the disease and those stigmatized for being HIV positive needs to continue, say church leaders.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at its meeting in Trondheim, Norway, 27 June 2016, has elected a new executive committee with 11 new members.

As participants in a workshop on HIV offered their personal reflections, they shared how their hearts have been deepened and changed by a dialogue facilitated by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).

“I came here to know the difference between HIV and AIDS, and to distinguish the role of women, especially women pastors, in educating, empowering, and enlightening people in her flock about their view on HIV,” said Rev. Mary Ann Kadile, a pastor from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. She traveled from Mindanao to San Pablo City, Laguna to participate in a workshop on HIV led by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

As the 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came to a close in Paris, a consultation organized by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance of the WCC on 11 December in Quezon City, Philippines considered “The Right to Food and Life in the Context of Climate Change.”

Some 40 individuals from churches, faith-based groups, community-based organizations, academia and the government will gather in the Philippines on 11 December for a consultation entitled The Right to Food and Life in the Context of Climate Change.

During the 4th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, the WCC, in collaboration with the ACT Alliance and Lutheran World Federation, organized a side-event on “Faith-based organizations’ contribution to the protection of communities’ land rights: lessons learnt and good practices from Africa, Asia and Latin America” at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

Participants in Manilakbazan 2015, called by some the “Lumad caravan”, have come to Manila for a month-long series of activities and protests to bring attention to human rights violations in Lumad communities of the Philippines.