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World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed deep sadness and concern upon receiving the news of the murder of lay pastor William Siraj and the wounding of Rev. Patrick Naeem, the priest in charge of the Martyrs of All Saints Church, Diocese of Peshawar, on 30 January. They were ambushed by two unidentified gunman as they were returning from Sunday worship in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A bomb attack by terrorists using the name of religion in Lahore on Easter Sunday marked the third time Christians have been targeted in Pakistan in three years, illustrating the vulnerability of people in the country.

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”.

Mere days after terror attacks in Beirut and Paris, the theme of an interfaith meeting of Christians and Muslims at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on “Religion, Peace and Violence” was entirely appropriate, said participants.

In the wake of recent crisis with the refugees in Europe, it is “absolutely and critically necessary that all European states take their proper responsibility in terms of reception and support for people seeking refuge, safety and a better future for themselves and their families. This cannot be left only to the states where they enter first,” says the WCC general secretary.

More than 400 representatives of member churches and partner bodies from 28 countries in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, headed home on 27 May from an exciting week in Jakarta, Indonesia after attending the Christian Conference of Asia's (CCA) 14th General Assembly.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.

Following bomb attacks on two churches in Lahore, Pakistan, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has condemned the violence against people and communities on the basis of their religious identity, and has called upon the Pakistani government to act swiftly in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

After a concerted examination of the evidence presented at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons and two earlier conferences, 44 of the states present called for a ban on nuclear weapons. The host government Austria added momentum with a specific, cooperative pledge to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition of nuclear weapons” and eliminate them.

Around 400 international participants representing diverse religious traditions at the Sant’Egidio community's 28th International Meeting of People and Religions in Antwerp, Belgium, focused on the theme “Peace is the Future”. The meeting featured dialogue, prayers and reflections on cultures and religions, including on 9 September an address from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.