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A group of bikers from the Bike for Peace visited the World Council of Churches on 30 August as part of a commemoration in the Place de Nations. 

As “16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence” drew to a close, churches around the world expressed their prayerful determination to keep carrying the message past 16 days, into the coming new year and beyond.

A recent consultation took important steps to find a faithful paradigm of thinking over the issue of "Freedom of Religion or Belief."Twenty-two church leaders and theologians gathered in Hattersheim am Main, Germany, 25-27 February, to discuss this issue in light of the global rise of ethno-nationalisms, xenophobia, interreligious intolerance, patriarchal hegemony and racism.“Given the present rise of ethno-nationalisms that use religion as identity markers and for legitimization of violence, it is imperative that we as people of faith be able to support the freedom of religion and work towards a world in which all people of faith have the freedom of expression, articulation and propagation of their faith,” said Philip Vinod Peacock, executive secretary for justice and witness of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

The Ecumenical Women's Assembly recently ended a weeklong meeting in Taiwan with calls to repent from greed and for Asian women to become advocates and catalysts of reconciliation, renewal, and restoration in the world, communities, and in churches.

Women have a unique approach to peace-building that could strengthen communities facing conflict and other challenges, found participants at a side event during Geneva Peace Week.The World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and Norwegian Church Aid organized a dialogue that emphasized new arenas for women’s participation in peace-building.

Twenty-seven young ecumenists from across Asia are currently attending the month-long Asian Ecumenical Institute organized by the Christian Conference of Asia. The programme aims to provide ecumenical formation and leadership development training for prospective church and ecumenical leaders. It is being held at the Christian Conference of Asia headquarters in Payap University Campus in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The World Council of Churches, World Evangelical Alliance and All Africa Conference of Churches, along with church-related humanitarian organizations and a coalition of church-related networks and organizations and partners, are promoting 10 June as the second annual Global Day of Prayer to End Famine to be observed in faith congregations worldwide.

Le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), l'Alliance évangélique mondiale et la Conférence des Églises de toute l'Afrique, aux côtés d'organisations humanitaires confessionnelles et d'une coalition de partenaires, d'organisations et de réseaux d'Églises, assurent la promotion de la deuxième Journée mondiale de prière pour mettre fin à la famine. Tous appellent à ce que cette journée soit observée au sein des communautés de foi à travers le monde, et ce, le 10 juin prochain.

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.

In a country where Christians are in clear minority, often suffering discrimination, and in a context that has seen repeated frictions and violence between people of different religious traditions, the Church of Norway and Church of Pakistan have broken new ecumenical ground during a recent week in Lahore, Pakistan.

Dans un pays où les chrétiens sont clairement en minorité, souffrant souvent de la discrimination, et dans un contexte qui a connu à diverses reprises les frictions et la violence entre adeptes de différentes traditions religieuses, l'Église de Norvège et l'Église du Pakistan ont récemment lancé une expérience œcuménique inédite, à Lahore, au Pakistan.

How can we begin building peace in an era of religious extremism and acts of terror? Start by reaching out in your own neighborhood, suggests Rev. Arshad Gill, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan.

The theme “Discrimination, Persecution, Martyrdom: Following Christ Together” remained in sharp focus at a Global Christian Forum consultation in Albania. The event from 1-5 November in Tirana gathered some 150 international participants, including representatives of the WCC.

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.

Norway’s largest church festival took on a green tint this year. A presentation about the situation of a country deeply affected by climate change, a popular workshop on church engagement in climate justice, and a speech by the WCC general secretary were among featured events.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed profound concern over the rejection of an appeal against the death sentence for a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, convicted under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law. To promote tolerance, religious harmony and protection of the rights of religious minorities, Tveit said it is important that justice is ensured in cases like that of Asia Bibi.

Le pasteur Olav Fykse Tveit, secrétaire général du COE, s’est dit profondément préoccupé par le cas de la chrétienne pakistanaise Asia Bibi, condamnée à mort en première instance pour avoir contrevenu à la loi controversée sur le blasphème en vigueur au Pakistan et déboutée de son appel. Pour promouvoir la tolérance, l’harmonie religieuse et la protection des droits des minorités religieuses, il est important de garantir la justice dans les cas comme celui d’Asia Bibi, a souligné le pasteur Tveit.

Lit with bright lights and adorned with colourful paintings on the walls, the Raham Centre run by the Gimhae Presbyterian Church in South Korea looks like a day-care centre for children. However, the name Raham, which literally means “womb of a woman” or “womb of God” in the Hebrew language, has deep implications for the work of the centre with the purpose of supporting “migrant wives” in Gimhae.

The WCC is working toward the revival of “Thursdays in Black”, a campaign against sexual and gender-based violence. The emphasis is pertinent to the theme of the WCC’s upcoming assembly: “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

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.