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The holy places of Haiti were not spared by the devastating January 12th earthquake. Throughout the capital city, Port-au-Prince, many churches are rebuilding out of the rumble.

"God’s grace and Your Holiness’ genuine commitment has made Your first year as Spiritual Head of the Russian Orthodox Church a blessed and fruitful period, a year of great achievements in all fields of life of the Russian Orthodox Church," wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a letter to Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia on 1 February.

by Theodore Gill

In brief comments to the Fourth Preconciliar Panorthodox Conference which met recently at the Orthodox Centre of Chambésy, near Geneva, the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, assured the participants that the WCC and its member churches are accompanying them in their work in thoughts and prayers, "knowing the importance of the decisions that the conference was preparing."

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, an Oxford-educated cleric who served as the Moscow Patriarchate's representative to European organizations in Brussels, has been appointed as head of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department of External Church Relations. Bishop Hilarion is also a member of the Central and Executive Committees of the World Council of Churches.

In a letter congratulating Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on his election as the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed the appreciation of the worlwide ecumenical fellowship for this "outstanding Orthodox theologian, leader and hierarch".

With "deep sadness" the officers of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who were meeting in Geneva this week, received word of the death of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexy II.

The destruction of ethnic Georgian communities in South Ossetia, the deep wounds to local society and war damage to the capital city confronted a delegation from the World Council of Churches on the second half of a 3-7 September pastoral visit to Georgia and Russia. The findings added urgency to concerns raised by government and church officials during a stop in Moscow.

A pastoral delegation sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to Georgia and Russia has not been able to visit South Ossetia from the Georgian side of the ceasefire line. Unable to make the half-hour drive to Tskhinvali from within Georgia, they are now traveling thousands of kilometers to reach the enclave from the Russian side instead.

A pastoral delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) will visit Russia and Georgia from 3 to 7 September. The delegation will listen to WCC member churches in both countries, encourage their efforts for peace and visit people displaced by the recent violence as well as church aid programmes.