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Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria travelled from the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Karlsruhe, Germany, to join a 5 September ceremony marking 50 years since 11 Israeli athletes died in a terrorist attack at the Olympic Games in Munich.

Protecting human freedom and dignity is a vital contribution to peace-building by religious communities, said Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I as he spoke at the Al-Azhar International Peace Conference on 27-28 April in Egypt.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has condemned as “cruel and despicable” the actions of those responsible for the lethal blast on the St Petersburg metro that killed 14 people and injured at least 49, calling for prayers for the victims and their close ones.

The WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, condemns the latest terrorist attack against people in Istanbul celebrating the New Year.

The Grand Imam of Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and university, Prof. Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb, will visit the WCC to give a public lecture and participate in high-level dialogue on interreligious peacemaking. “We are honoured to welcome one of the world’s highest-ranking and most influential Muslim leaders to Geneva, and I very much look forward to his lecture and to sharing views with him on the many challenges that we as religious persons and leaders face together,” says WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

French President François Hollande praised Protestant churches and organizations for their work in areas such as health, social inclusion and support for refugees and migrants during a meeting on 13 April at the presidential Elysée Palace with 300 Protestant leaders and representatives.

Two major crises have marked the months since the WCC called Katalina Tahaafe-Williams to work in Geneva on its migration, indigenous, and multicultural ministry programmes. When she took up the job in October, the European refugee crisis was in full flow. Then in November, terrorists attacked Paris.

Violence in the name of religion echoed in the distance, demanding a response, through the November 2015 meeting of the 25-member Executive Committee of the WCC in Bogis-Bossey and nearby Geneva, Switzerland as it planned the work of the Council in the coming years.

In the midst of a mounting climate of fear of refugees and immigrants, the WCC is calling on Christians to be true to the Biblical imperative to “welcome the stranger”.

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.

The WCC Executive Committee has strongly condemned the latest terror attacks in Paris and Beirut.