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War, ethnic conflict, millions of refugees and a deteriorating humanitarian situation provide a bleak background for discussion of the Middle East.

On Sunday 19 June a suicide bomber attacked an Assyrian genocide commemoration event in the al-Wusta district of Qamishli, Syria, in which Patriarch Aphrem II Karim of the Syriac Orthodox Church was presiding. The attacker was prevented from entering the venue of the event, but detonated his bomb, killing himself and three members of the security forces and wounding five

Three years after the two Syrian archbishops were kidnapped near Aleppo, Syria, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit is keeping hope alive and continuing to pray for their release.

Negotiations should end the conflict and bring political transition in Syria, urged the World Council of Churches and Pax Christi International in a joint statement issued 15 March.

The World Council of Churches announced its support of a joint appeal for humanitarian access in Syria initiated by the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNICEF, and signed by dozens of humanitarian agencies worldwide.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has issued a statement on behalf of the Council hailing the historic meeting of Pope Francis, pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, and Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.The two leaders met on 12 February in Havana, Cuba.

The #SyriaCrisis has raged for five brutal years and another round of talks involving the world’s powerful nations and those involved in the conflict to push for peace could be starting to finally end the warring.

Following the WCC/UN High Level Conference on the Refugee Crisis in Europe, which took place at the Ecumenical Centre Geneva on 18-19 January, a statement has been issued entitled "Europe’s Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action”.

Churches in Europe have a crucial role to play in responding to the arrival of refugees in Europe, Germany's interior minister has told a gathering in Geneva of governments, United Nations agencies, church and faith groups and civil society organizations.

Citing doubts about a mandate for military deployment and the prospects for success, the Evangelical Church in Germany voiced its opposition to the deployment of federal armed forces against the terrorist militia group that identifies itself as Islamic State.

Today 35 bishops and church leaders from 20 countries gathered in Munich, Germany to discuss the refugee situation and the role of the churches in Europe.

An international conference held at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Nikos Kotzias, has gathered around 70 prominent religious, political and academic figures in Athens, Greece, this week.

It is raining. It is cold and windy. Autumn is in the air in northern Greece. We have just arrived at the Idomeni refugee camp in northern Greece, on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The fast-approaching winter poses as great a threat to the refugees as do the smugglers. In the worst case, winter means death.

To achieve just peace in the Middle East, “it is very adequate to focus on what would maintain and reinforce the cultural and religious diversity that has distinguished this region for long centuries,” said the WCC general secretary.

In an official statement issued on 12 October, the WCC has expressed grave concern over the dramatic escalation of the conflict in Syria.

“The world must support a real peace process in Syria now to stop these tragedies for peoples and cultures,” according to the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. He said the reports received of the destruction by so-called “Islamic State” of a fifth-century monastery near Homs, Syria, is – “a further expression of Islamic State’s extremist agenda.”

The WCC has welcomed the constructive new consensus emerging in the United Nations Security Council regarding the ongoing crisis in Syria, particularly the support given to the peace plan proposed by UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura.

A new initiative titled Ecumenical Institute for the Middle East is “promising and inspiring” in its attempt to train young Christians in ecumenical thought and history, according to Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC.

This Lenten season, the WCC invites its member churches to pray on Sunday 29 March for those affected by wars in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt. The season of prayer is meant to revive hope from hopelessness, taking into account the vulnerability of minority communities and the threat of losing the diversity of the social fabric in this region.

The WCC has strongly condemned the latest attacks and atrocities reported to have been committed by the so-called “Islamic State” against Christians in Syria.