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Solidarity fatigue is one of the main obstacles faced by Colombian civil society organizations struggling to find a resolution to the country's 40-year long internal armed conflict, an ecumenical gathering has been told. Participants also heard a renewed call to action.

The international tug-of-war over carbon emission thresholds and other instruments meant to limit the deterioration of the earth's climate has caused a big stir in recent months, but yielded little results. Therefore the international community must now get ready to take care of those who will be forced from their homes by climate change.

Representatives of churches in Iraq confirmed their commitment to work together with all Iraqi citizens for reconciliation and rebuilding peace in the country.

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the exploitation of the migrants' work.

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The plight of people displaced by war will be the main topic of a " Living Letters " visit to Uganda, 27 October to 2 November. An international ecumenical delegation sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) will discuss with representatives of churches, state and civil society about the protection of refugees, with a specific focus on sexual violence and the vulnerability of children.

By Annegret Kapp (*)

"Islam cannot be studied like grammar," Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria, told a delegation led by Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who had come to Syria wishing to learn from the country's long experience of Christians and Muslims living peacefully together. "We have to see the real people and share with them. Muslims are sharing with you by living in your countries. Why do you ignore them?" the patriarch asked particularly the delegation members from Europe and the United States at the outset of their 19 to 22 April visit.

The diminishing religious diversity in the Middle East was discussed as a threat to the stability of the region on Monday 21 April meeting between a WCC delegation and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"Migration is a fact of life. It is as much an instinct to survive as it is an inevitable consequence of globalization. We can neither turn our backs on it, nor control it," declared in a statement participants at a 15-16 April Public Hearing on Migration and the Changing Ecclesial Landscape in Beirut, Lebanon. "Migrants are not commodities, illegal aliens or mere victims, they are human beings."

Representatives of churches, church-related organisations and ecumenical bodies associated with the World Council of Churches (WCC) from Africa, Europe and the Middle East will be gathering in Brussels from 6-9 July 2007 for a meeting on migration in and between these regions. The participants from sending and receiving regions will focus on the issue of removals from Europe, coordinate advocacy work directed towards the European Union and the African Union and develop advocacy strategies to be implemented in the regions with a particular emphasis on "being church together".

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)

"The impact of migration on the church and the ecclesial context" is the theme of a 6-8 June 2007 conference in Nairobi, Kenya of the Global Ecumenical Network on Migration (GEM). To be opened by Kenya's minister for immigration, and hosted by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the conference will be attended by representatives of churches, church-related organizations and ecumenical bodies in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the Pacific.

The main points of focus for the 2007 Decade to Overcome Violence focus on Europe will be migration and working on a theology of a just peace.

Deep concern about "the increasing use of detention to restrict and deter cross-border movement by asylum seekers and other migrants" prompted the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Global Ecumenical Network on Uprooted Peoples (GEN) to circulate a statement on this issue at a meeting in Geneva this week of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) Executive Committee.

Baldwin Sjollema, first director of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Programme to Combat Racism (PCR), received the Oliver Tambo Order from South African president Thabo Mbeki on 16 June 2004 in Pretoria.