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Sermon at morning prayers for the WCC/UN High Level Conference: Refugee Crisis in Europe, by Paolo Naso, Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy.

As a follow-up to the Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth (AGAPE) process, which concluded with the AGAPE Call presented at the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre in 2006, the WCC initiated a programme focused on eradicating poverty, challenging wealth accumulation and safeguarding ecological integrity based on the understanding that Poverty, Wealth and Ecology are integrally related. The AGAPE Call to Action is the result of a six-year process of consultations and regional studies.

Church and ecumenical leaders from Asia gathered at the Bangkok Christian Guest House in Thailand from 2 to 5 August 2011, on the invitation of the WCC and CCA, to address emerging concerns in Asia, with a thematic focus on Peace and Security in Asia: Ecumenical Responses.

Summary of major learnings from the meeting of the Working Group representing the South East Asian, South Asian, Middle East and Gulf regions at Bangkok Christian Guest House, Bangkok, 17-20 July 2011

The World Council of Churches, together with the Conference of European Churches and the Commission for Migrants in Europe, call for a response to the humanitarian crisis in and around Libya.

Opening Sermon at Thanksgiving Worship, Doorn, Utrecht, Holland, 14 June.

In a meeting organized by the World Council of Churches in Dar Sayedat Al Jabal, Fatka, Lebanon, between 10 and 11 February 2009, twelve church leaders from all over Iraq discussed the current situation of its Christians community. Representatives from different Iraqi churches participated in the meeting together with bishops from the Syrian and Armenian Orthodox Churches and the Chaldean Church in Lebanon, and the General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches.

The executive committee of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, 25-28 September, 2007, is deeply troubled by their suffering and calls urgently for solutions to the suffering of the Iraqi people.

This document has been published by the World Council of Churches and other partners, including Islamic organisations and specialised journals. It is the fruit of a Muslim-Christian meeting held in Amersfoort, Netherlands in November 2000. Convened by the World Council of Churches, it took stock of the various Christian-Muslim dialogue initiatives of this organisation since 1991. During the last nine years, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, educators and activists have discussed the thorny and sometimes divisive issues of religion, law and society, human rights, religious freedom, community rights, mission and da'wa and communal tensions. This document draws largely on their questions, reflections and conclusions.

Poor and oppressed people, who are at the margins of the world's concern, should be at the centre of Christian service, insisted the 300 participants in the 1986 global ecumenical consultation on interchurch aid in Larnaca, Cyprus. Diakonia, they said, is "liberating and transforming, suffering and empowering". Christian service cannot be separated from the struggle for justice and peace; therefore, advocacy, solidarity and sharing of skills are as essential to diakonia as the giving of money.

The World Council of Churches welcomes the landmark ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on 23 February 2012, in which the EU Court ruled that Italy violated the rights of Eritrean and Somali migrants by sending them back to Libya.