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Reconciliation was once primarily seen as a message of the church but is now used by secular leaders trying to establish peace in communities torn by conflict and war, the WCC president for Africa, the Rev. Mary Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, has said at a major Protestant gathering in Germany.

From Paris to Pakistan, Orlando to Myanmar, Iraq to Nigeria, each day witnesses conflict and violence perpetrated in the name of religion or committed against persons because of their religious identity.

De Paris au Pakistan ou d’Orlando au Myanmar, en passant par l’Irak et le Nigeria, chaque jour apporte son lot de conflits et d’actes de violence commis au nom de la religion ou infligés à des personnes en raison de leur identité religieuse.

Sitting in a tent at the Souda camp, on the island of Chios in Greece, a Pakistani family of 12 recalls the lives they had in their home country. They had everything except safety. Muhammed and his wife, Asia, along with their 10 children, fled their home country in search of a place where they weren’t constantly fearing for their lives.

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.

Important votes at the United Nations (UN) in early November give an indication of how much of the world wants new action to eliminate nuclear weapons, and how determined the main nuclear powers and their allies are to resist such long-overdue change.

D’importants votes tenus au début de novembre aux Nations Unies (ONU) montrent la volonté d’agir pour éradiquer les armes nucléaires dans le monde, ainsi que la résistance des principales puissances nucléaires et de leurs alliés sur ce changement tant attendu.

Seventy years after nuclear fireballs exploded over two Japanese cities, an ecumenical group of pilgrims has come to Hiroshima to listen to those who survived and renew the struggle against their own countries’ continued reliance on nuclear weapons.

“It is time to abandon all support for retaining nuclear weapons. It is time to refuse to accept that the mass destruction of other people can be a legitimate form of protection of ourselves,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at the Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima.

«Il est temps d’abandonner tout soutien au maintien de l’arme nucléaire. Il est temps de ne plus accepter que la destruction massive d’autres peuples puisse être une forme légitime de protection pour nous-mêmes», a déclaré l’évêque Mary Ann Swenson lors d’un service anglican-catholique du souvenir pour la paix à la cathédrale catholique du mémorial de la paix d’Hiroshima, au Japon, le 5 août.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

Au début d'août, des responsables d'Églises de sept pays qui se trouvent face au choix historique de mettre hors la loi ou non les armes nucléaires vont entreprendre un pèlerinage vers les deux villes japonaises dévastées par des bombes atomiques il y a 70 ans.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.

After a concerted examination of the evidence presented at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons and two earlier conferences, 44 of the states present called for a ban on nuclear weapons. The host government Austria added momentum with a specific, cooperative pledge to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition of nuclear weapons” and eliminate them.

A reflection on the recent United Nations meeting on the Non-Proliferation Treaty, by Jonathan Frerichs, WCC programme executive for peace building and disarmament, and member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The WCC Executive Committee has condemned the use of drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles saying that they pose “serious threats to humanity” and the “right to life” while setting “dangerous precedents in inter-state relations”.

Le Comité exécutif du COE a condamné l'utilisation de drones, véhicules aériens sans pilote, au motif que ceux-ci posent «de sérieuses menaces à l'humanité» et au «droit à la vie» et qu'ils établissent «de dangereux précédents dans les relations entre États».

A three-day WCC consultation has featured diverse perspectives from Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe on the politicization of religion and how this phenomenon contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.