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For the first time in its history, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has initiated a formal dialogue with Confucians. Organised in collaboration with the Council for World Mission and the Korea Forum for Science and Life and with the support of the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Sungkyunkwan University, the City of Andong and the Korea Foundation for Culture and Ethics, the dialogue commenced on 27 October with an interreligious consultation on Christian-Confucian relations in Seoul

Together with the heads of the Coptic, Syrian, Armenian and Indian Orthodox Churches, the Evangelical Church in Germany celebrated on Saturday evening in Berlin an ecumenical prayer for Christians in the Middle East. The jointly prepared service was the highlight of a historic visit. For the first time, Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch Ignatius Afrem II, Catholicos Karekin II and Catholicos Baselios Morthoma Paulose II visited together in Germany to inform political and church representatives on the bad and sad situation in the region of origin of Christianity.

A consultation in Arusha, Tanzania, has issued a communique entitled “Sustainable Peace in Burundi.” The meeting, organized by the World Council of Churches and the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, drew together Burundian religious leaders on 18-19 October.

Offering greetings on the occasion of Diwali, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit emphasized the bonds of common humanity and focused on the well-being of all.

Meeting on 12-15 September in Lisbon, Portugal, the Joint Working Group (JWG) of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church focused its work on peace-building and the concerns of migrants.

At a meeting at the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue in Tehran, Iran on 20-23 August, delegations from the World Council of Churches and the Iranian Shia community gathered, with a sense of warmth and a willingness for deep exchange, for a bilateral dialogue.

Security built on the assumption that the power to destroy serves the purpose of peace is unsafe security, states World Council of Churches (WCC) president for Europe and Archbishop emeritus Dr Anders Wejryd, adding that trust is necessary for a real peace.

Muslims and Christians were gathered together in Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 27th July. Side-by-side for just peace in the Holy Land. After almost two weeks of tension, violence and killings in Jerusalem. Meetings between church leaders and the Islamic leadership inside the mosque plaza were cheered by the community even amid wafts of tear gas and the rumble of explosives from time to time. Catholic Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, who was supposed to be heading the Christian delegation, was denied entry through Lions’ Gate and, instead, sent his message.

On 18-19 July, 35 young leaders from 14 countries across Asia – part of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Youth in Asia Training in Religious Amity (YATRA) – travelled to the Indonesian city of Bandung to meet with faith leaders and young activists engaged in interreligious dialogue and work.

After 50 years of occupation, Palestinians in the Holy Land haven’t given up their hopes for freedom. Still, Palestinians – and many Israelis as well – hope. They hope that a nonviolent solution to the conflict will come, and that both peoples eventually will live together in peace and reconciliation.

Last week, young Jewish, Muslim and Christian students learned about communication and peacebuilding during a workshop at the Ecumenical Centre, all with the hope of serving as peacemakers in their own contexts. The session was led by Marianne Ejdersten, director of WCC Communication.

The first ever action plan specifically designed to enable religious leaders to prevent incitement to violence - the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes - was launched on 14 July by Secretary-General António Guterres at a meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

For Dr Vahid Sohrabifar from Iran’s city of Qom, attending the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interreligious Studies at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey was inspiring due to the diversity he encountered on the course.

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), on 11-12 July, held an international consultation on “Towards Revitalising the Ecumenical Movement in Asia.” The gathering of 60 church and ecumenical leaders was organised by the CCA at its headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand as a prelude to its Diamond Jubilee celebration.

Friday evening when the leaders of the G20 states will be meeting in Hamburg and discussing global economic, social, environmental and political issues, the churches in Germany are inviting people in Germany and all over the world to a common peace prayer.

The World Council of Churches' (WCC) popular YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) programme has a new online learning component that adds four weeks of intensive training to two weeks of residential learning. When 35 young men and women from 14 different countries meet at the Jakarta Theological Seminary in Indonesia on 8 July, they will already have a familiarity with the major religious traditions found in Asia, thanks to their online studies.

As a student back in the seventies, it took a while for Rifat Kassis to come to terms with being both a good Christian, and a Palestinian living under occupation. His call to become a reverend in the Lutheran Church in Palestine brought him to Germany to study theology 40 years ago.

As young people from across the world gathered for a three-week Interreligious Summer School at the World Council of Churches (WCC ) Bossey Ecumenical Institute, they heard inspiring greetings about interreligious dialogue from people who encouraged them to contribute to issues of religious pluralism and intercultural acceptance in a society based on migration and globalization.

Marking the end of Ramadan, or Eid al Fitr, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) offered greetings to the worldwide Muslim community.

Profiles of peacemakers and cries for justice for all the peoples in Israel and Palestine are featured in a World Council of Churches (WCC) campaign, Seek #JusticeAndPeace in the Holy Land, launched online today.