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After being postponed twice because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 15^th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) finally got underway in late September and early October 2023 in Kottayam, India. Under the theme "God, renew us in your spirit and restore the creation,” CCA member churches across Asia gathered to stake out the direction forward and evaluate accomplishments and challenges since the last assembly in 2015 in Jakarta. 

Church leaders in Pakistan are calling for international solidarity and for measures to ensure the safety and security of Christians in Pakistan. Their messages come in the wake of church burnings in the city of Jaranwala, in eastern Pakistan, where 24 churches have been burned, affecting at least 600 families.

By far the largest region, both in terms of population and geographical size, the Asia region faces an array of pertinent issues for the churches to address and engage in. Stretching from Iran in the west to Japan in the east and from Nepal in the north to New Zealand in the south, the region encompasses a wide range of cultures and religions.

Participants of the World Council of Churches’(WCC) 11^th Assembly had the opportunity to meet and share with others from their regions on Friday, September 2. The format and discussions of the eight regions demonstrated the diversity of cultures from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Pacific – and ranged from the issues they wished to make visible in the assembly to regional representation on committees and the election of the WCC presidents.

Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan was the primate of the Diocese of Artsakh for nearly 33 years, living through three wars in the area known as Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, and he says the one in 2020 that ended in November was by far the worst because of the lethal weaponry and armies involved.