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While news headlines continue to document tragedies on land and sea as desperate people flee violence and abject poverty in their homelands, representatives of governments, UN agencies and civil society organizations, including churches and faith-based organizations, met 18-19 January at a high-level conference on the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

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”.

Some 80 leaders of governments, UN agencies, faith-related as well as non-religious civil society organizations from countries affected by the current refugee crisis in Europe, Middle East, and Africa will meet at a conference hosted by the WCC in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to discern how they can proactively influence and shape coordinated collective practical responses.

Capitalizing on momentum from the recent COP21 accord in Paris was the focus of a meeting of the WCC general secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace on 16 December.

“Church leaders and other leaders of faith communities played a vital role in Paris,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in an interview during the week following the COP21 UN conference on climate change.

Reflections from the International Conference on Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula in Arnoldshain, Germany

For public theology, “the essential and pressing task of the churches and theological education is to foster love, dialogue, forgiveness, reconciliation” says Prof. Dr Rudolf Von Sinner.

A new online collection of church and ecumenical statements on bioethics and biotechnology has been launched by the global ethics network Globethics.net, developed in collaboration with the World Council of Churches. The collection contains more than 250 documents from ecumenical organizations, and Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions.

Hailing an election “widely acknowledged as largely free and fair”, the Executive Committee of the WCC has joined “the churches and all people of Myanmar in celebrating an election process conducted and concluded successfully and peacefully.”

The Executive Committee of the WCC released a statement in the lead-up to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris expressing hope that the event will achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

"In COP21 we decide whether the glass is half full or half empty, but the glass must be transparent", tweeted climate activist Yeb Saño at the end of a day full of activities engaging leadership and staff members of the WCC, the Lutheran World Federation and ACT Alliance, at the Ecumenical Centre, in Geneva, Switzerland.

A special service organized by the WCC at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated prayers to the United Nations post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, meant to eliminate extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change and water scarcity by 2030.

Rev. Kakule Molo, president of the Baptist Community in Central Africa, reflected on the rule of law and the electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a side-event at the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council on 16 September in Geneva, Switzerland.

Affordability of water and sanitation as a human right were deliberated at a side-event during the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

The vision of building a better world for children where they can be protected from violence and sexual abuse in families, schools and communities was strongly affirmed by representatives of both religious and secular organizations in a forum held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International, was welcomed by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a meeting held at the WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Despite significant steps taken by the Kenyan government, coordinator of the WCC Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network Dr Samuel Kabue says that “more needs to be done” so that people with disability can enjoy their rights.

Dynamics of “indigenous ecological spiritualties and Christian faith” were explored at a WCC seminar in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The role of faith in promoting women’s human rights was the focus of an ecumenical training session held in Geneva, Switzerland, for representatives of faith-based organizations.

Meeting from 17 to 24 June, the newly reconstituted Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC has begun to define its principal trajectories for ecumenical study and common activity from 2015 until the next WCC Assembly in 2020.