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The World Council of Churches (WCC) has expressed concern that the deteriorating situation in the West African country of Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire ) “is on the verge of enflaming religious conflicts.”

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit met with Archbishop Chrysostomos II of the Church of Cyprus and the president of Cyprus, Dr Demetris Christofias, in separate meetings Thursday in Nicosia.

By Theodore Gill*

The image of Madagascar was deeply tarnished by the political crisis of 2009. For their part, the churches there have a role in helping to maintain the peace.

High-ranking Muslim and Christian leaders as well as renowned scholars and interfaith practitioners, representing various Islamic and Christians organizations, will gather 1-4 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for an international consultation on Christian and Muslim concerns.

At the 50th meeting since its foundation in 1946, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) decided to refocus, establishing four thematic working groups, in order better to respond to the needs of the member churches.

By Aneth Lwakatare (*)

A new inter-religious partnership for health will be kick-started at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in New York, 20-22 September.

A Living Letters team travelling on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC)  was welcomed to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia by a Larrakia elder and regional church leaders.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is sending an international ecumenical Living Letters delegation to visit the Indigenous Peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia from 12 -17 September 2010.

“The prospect for a religion-based approach to peace-making has a great potential in sub-Saharan Africa,” Dr Yacob Tesfai said presenting his new book Holy Warriors, Infidels and Peacemakers in Africa.

Although it is often portrayed as a religious conflict, the crisis in Nigeria's Central Plateau State is of social and economic nature, the country's foreign minister told church representatives. The church delegation advocated for government action to develop the area and to bring to trial those responsible for an outburst of communal violence last March.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) Living Letters team has appealed to Nigeria's religious leaders to encourage people belonging to different ethnic and faith groups to take initiatives to promote lasting peace and harmony in violence-affected communities.

It was a deeply moving experience for the Living Letters team visiting Nigeria on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) when they gathered to pray around a mass grave in Dogonahawa, near Jos, in the Central Plateau State on Tuesday. About 323 locals murdered last March have been buried at the site.

During a meeting with a Living Letters team visiting Nigeria on behalf of the World Council of Churches, the governor of the Plateau state, Jonah David Jang said that “religion is used to cover up all conflicts, although other factors also exist”. While explaining certain reasons for the conflicts, the governor admitted that “I am a committed Christian. As governor of this state, I am elected by the people and God gave me the mandate to direct the people in the righteous way”.

Christian villagers are rebuilding their lives and relationships more than a year after being attacked by a group of Hindu extremists in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

On the eve of the 22 September United Nations Summit on Climate Change representatives of faith communities around the world called on world leaders and on "all people of Earth to accept the reality of the common danger we face, the imperative and responsibility for immediate and decisive action and the opportunity to change."

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee called on the Israeli government to freeze and begin to dismantle settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. It also encouraged a commitment to non-violence and peace negotiations, and reiterated the need for an international boycott of products and services from settlements.

The Anglican primate of Ireland, directors of Christian development organizations in Europe and church leaders in Jerusalem have acted and spoken on peace for Israel and Palestine based on what each of them has seen on the ground.

Change is in the air as churches in many parts of the world hold a "World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel" that began on 4 June 2009. New voices are advocating steps toward peace that churches have been promoting for years.