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Forty years after the Soweto uprising, leaders of churches in conflict-torn countries gathered in South Africa to study the ways of peace and reconciliation.

To renew relations with churches and religious organizations and to explore possibilities of joint promotion of peace and reconciliation in Ukraine, a staff delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Kyiv 6-8 June. The visit was the fourth such visit by the WCC to Ukraine since the conflict erupted in 2014.

On his way to a Peace-building and Reconciliation Consultation in Johannesburg, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary stopped off to visit South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.

WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, went to Cape Town to talk with Archbishop Emeritus Tutu, the former leader of the Anglican church during the turbulent apartheid days.

A refugee aid cooperation initiative backed by Christians, Jews and Muslims backed by the Federal German Government dubbed “Do you know who I am?” ("Weißt du, wer ich bin?") has launched in Berlin.

Women and children figure prominently as refugees in mass movements of people in recent months and their rights will be at the forefront of a summer school organized in Greece by the Conference of European Churches.

A delegation from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, led by general secretary Rev. Lyim Hong-Tiong, was welcomed in Geneva by the WCC general secretary. Discussions focused on the situation of Christians and especially the situation for indigenous people in Taiwan.

“Children need to know their place in the church. And that is at the front, not the back”, said Bishop Raphael Opoko from the Methodist Church of Nigeria, speaking at a round table discussion on promoting the rights of children held on 19 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

Representatives of major international ecumenical organizations visited Hungary 25-29 September to strengthen efforts in support of refugees in Europe and the Middle East.

The WCC and UNICEF signed a partnership on 18 September pledging to work together to support children’s rights, with special initial focus on two major issues: violence against children and climate change.

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan’s diocese of Wau has developed a course titled “Reconcile - Moving Forward in Peace”, inviting people to be peace-builders this Lenten season.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

A new online survey supported by the WCC aims to promote the study of issues such as the environment, climate change and food security as part of the training of future pastors, priests and other Christian leaders.

A WCC team met last week with religious leaders and community members in northern Iraq to assess the situation of heightened violence and displacement due to attacks by militants of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (IS).

When the Central Committee of the WCC convenes in plenary sessions during the course of its current meeting, the 150 representatives of member churches and assorted observers gather in the W.A. Visser ’t Hooft Hall, the main meeting room of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The room is named for a theologian from the Netherlands who served as the first general secretary of the WCC from 1948 to 1966.

Church leaders, who were part of the negotiations between South Sudan's president Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar, now urge that the peace agreement come into immediate effect, ending a five-month conflict in the world’s newest country.

The upcoming WCC 10th Assembly is not only a pivotal moment in the life of the global fellowship of 345 member churches but also a defining moment for the WCC and its programmatic and financial partners.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has been playing an active role in the two major events that are taking place in Rio from 12 to 23 June: the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20, and the People’s Summit.

"€œDiakonia is an essential ecclesial function. It must be prophetic and transformative. It cannot be opted only in convenient forms,"€ asserted participants of a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference, reflecting on "€œTheology of Diakonia for the 21st Century"€. The event took place from 2 to 6 June in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Representatives of a broad range of Christian churches and organizations met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 14 to 19 January to complete a report and make recommendations for significant advances toward Christian unity and inter-religious cooperation.

The church and migration is the focus of the latest issue of the International Review of Mission (IRM). The biannual journal is sponsored by the World Council of Churches and focuses on the ecumenical practice of mission while giving voice to other theological perspectives, such as those of Pentecostal and Evangelical missiologists.