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If we do not adjust aid better to the needs of the minorities in Syria and northern Iraq, we run the risk of building walls instead of bridges. As the populations of Syria and Iraq feel the toll of armed conflicts in their countries, the World Council of Churches and Norwegian Church Aid are now releasing a unique joint study, “Protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq,” today, 28 November, in Oslo, Norway.

Women walk slowly around in their sanctuary at Lalesh. Some have their children with them. They have been collected from the refugee camp to go to the Yazidis’ holy place, in the mountains of northern Iraq, some distance from Dohuk. All are quiet to begin with, and everyone makes sure not to tread on the doorstep to the temple.

Madeline, 14, and sister Sabrine, 16, are both paralyzed in their legs. “They were paralyzed by shock. Something happened to their nervous system”, says father Mohammad. The family was caught in the crossfire in Daraa, in southern Syria. Son Louay, 3, was killed by a bomb. That’s when they decided to flee. Bombs were constantly falling during their flight.

IS attacked at four in the morning. In the small village of Tel Hermes, only men stayed behind to try to defend it. The elderly had also stayed behind. Now IS dragged everyone out in their pyjamas. Of around 30 men, half were killed. One of them was electrician Fouad Younan.

Religion is often manipulated by groups who fuel divisions between people of different faiths, said Adama Dieng, special adviser of the UN secretary-general on the prevention of genocide at a 23-25 November Global Summit on Religion, Peace and Security.

The Right Livelihood Award is seen as an “alternative Nobel Prize” and its laureates are often regarded as courageous people or organizations offering exemplary solutions to the root causes of global problems. An interactive seminar, “Fostering Solidarity for Human Rights, Peace and Justice,” featuring several laureates of the award took place on 31 October at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

When the WCC joined the Blue Communities Project on 25 October, water and eco-justice advocates from around the world offered congratulations, while at the same time urging WCC member churches to join the quest for global water and sanitation rights.

A visit to the al-Za'atari refugee camp, currently hosting more than 80,000 people fleeing from conflict in Syria, was a life-changing experience for members of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) who met recently in Amman, Jordan.

Churches need a “holistic and inclusive vision of just peace” in the face of national and international conflicts, the moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Dr Agnes Abuom, said at an international peace consultation 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.

Three times a week refugees are invited to Luthergemeinde - or Luther Parish - in central Halle, Germany to visit with parish members. Sometimes they cook and sometimes they just meet to talk and get acquainted. This initiative is a creative effort to integrate some of the 400 refugees that have been placed around the vicinity of the parish.

During the 29 years Virgine Nasrawi has worked in the Talbiah refugee camp, located 40 kilometers south of Amman, the Jordanian capital, she has witnessed many changes. And the sudden influx of refugees from neighbouring Syria, caused by the devastating civil war in that country, is the most dramatic.

Greece’s people are exhausted from years of economic crisis and the Orthodox church head there is pleading with the European Union to reconsider its decision to limit the refugees it is accepting.

David Bradwell of Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees has been on a mission for the past six months trying to raise awareness on what individuals and churches can do to help those fleeing conflicts and wars.

Negotiations should end the conflict and bring political transition in Syria, urged the World Council of Churches and Pax Christi International in a joint statement issued 15 March.

The World Council of Churches announced its support of a joint appeal for humanitarian access in Syria initiated by the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNICEF, and signed by dozens of humanitarian agencies worldwide.

When Fernando Enns thinks of water in a German context, he is reminded of thousands and thousands of refugees who have come to the country fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Participants in a recent conference on the refugee crisis in Europe, hosted by the WCC, said they felt energized by the reports from a multitude of activities undertaken by churches from Lebanon to Finland through Serbia, Greece and Germany.

“The way we handle the refugee crisis, not least the settling in and integration process, will be of utmost significance, both for the attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers in the future, and for the long-term stability and sustainability of our own societies”, said Knut Vollebaek, ambassador and former Norwegian foreign minister, in his speech at the recent WCC/UN conference on Europe’s refugee crisis.

The recent and ongoing flood of migrants and refugees in transit to Europe is testing not only Europe’s physical borders but its legal, security and diplomatic boundaries as well.