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Lent, a season for prayers and reflections by Christians around the world, has become an opportunity for the churches to respond to climate change, an issue which deeply impacts the communities they serve.

The WCC mourns the death of Lois M. Dauway, a former member of the WCC Central Committee and Executive Committee, who made a significant contribution in the fields of mission, evangelism and Christian unity, known for her distinguished career in ecumenical service.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been globally celebrated this year with prayers, reflections, ecumenical services and events focusing on Paul’s question in Corinthians 1 “Has Christ been divided?” a theme for this year’s prayer materials, prepared by the Canadian churches.

Ambassador Abdul Samad Minty, permanent representative of South Africa to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, recalled his friend and former president Nelson Mandela in a memorial service on 16 December at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

The general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday morning 9 December, to attend events in honour of Nelson Mandela who died Thursday, 5 December.

Celebrating the life and works of Nelson Mandela, Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, called Mandela a “global icon of justice, peace and dignity” for Africa and the world.

Calling Nelson Mandela a leader with hard-won wisdom and maturity unparalleled in our time, the WCC general secretary gave thanks to God for Mandela’s life, which he described as a gift to South Africa and the whole world.

The plenary on justice at the WCC 10th Assembly brings into focus the core of its theme “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.” Following on diverse reflections from around the world on Christian unity, Asia and mission, the assembly plenary on 6 November in Busan, Republic of Korea, highlighted struggles for justice.

On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest nation. South Sudan today is estimated to be home to more than 11 million people and is geographically one of the larger countries in Africa. The prayer and theme of the WCC 10th Assembly is “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”. What does the prayer for justice and peace means for South Sudan today and in the future?

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC has expressed “profound sadness” over the killings at the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya last week. While condemning these acts of violence in two letters to Kenyan churches and the nation’s president, he offered prayers for all those impacted by this tragedy.

A long time academic and professor of missiology at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Dr Paul J. Isaak has been appointed as director of elections by President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Namibia. Isaak commenced his new position at the Electoral Commission of Namibia in September.

Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church has addressed the United Nations (UN) in New York at its High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.

While condemning all use of chemical weapons in Syria, the WCC general secretary said that “we must do everything possible to starve the fire of war rather than feeding it with further deadly armaments.”

Events in Northeast Asia this year “dramatize how much the region and the world still live in the shadow of mass destruction”, the WCC general secretary said in a comment on the 68th anniversary this week of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “The God of life calls all of us to take up [the survivors’] tireless cry and make certain that a Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombing can never happen again.”

Two ecumenical councils in South Sudan and Sudan have now been established. The decision comes after South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011 following a referendum mandated by the 2005 peace pact that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed deep admiration for the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada for holding their first-ever joint assembly in Ottawa, Canada.

The WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, and Abune Mathias, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, affirmed their commitment in Addis Ababa to “continue working together to accomplish visions for justice and peace”.

South Sudan president Salva Kiir Mayardit emphasized the strong potential of churches in helping to develop their new country. His comments came during a conversation with the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, who on Friday, 25 April visited the capital city, Juba, where he met with staff and members of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC).

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, offered prayers and support for advocacy against violence on behalf of the WCC member churches in light of the bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday, 15 April.