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The newly released Fifth Anniversary Women’s Global Prayer Guide, published by the Lott Carey Global Christian Missional Community, features 31 days of prayer for women’s empowerment from contributors around the world.

While meeting in Nanjing and Shanghai, China, from 17-23 November, the WCC Executive Committee issued a statement on climate justice that reiterates the urgent concerns of churches in relation to climate change, and calls on all states to fulfill the commitments of the Paris Agreement.

Music can be a key resource in building truly multicultural congregations and communities, found participants at a seminar, “Music and Cultures,” organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 30 October to 2 November in Quebec, Canada.

The Episcopal Church in North Dakota, in an open letter dated 25 October 2016 and penned by Rev. John Floberg, called on communities of faith to converge at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, USA from 2-4 November to “stand witness to water protectors’ acts of compassion for God's creation, and to the transformative power of God's love to make a way out of no way.”

By a three-to-one margin, the United Nations is authorizing negotiations to ban nuclear weapons in 2017. The decision caps five years of rising international will to eliminate nuclear weapons because of their catastrophic effects. The UN General Assembly’s First Committee took the decision on 27 October.

Following the adoption of a new Political Declaration on Ending AIDS by United Nations Member States in June 2016, faith leaders are joining together to explore how they can engage in transforming the response to HIV so that commitments are turned into action.

“Negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons”. Do it “in 2017”. Make sure the negotiations are “open to all states” and include civil society. These are key points in a much-disputed report adopted last week by a United Nations working group of more than 100 countries meeting in Geneva.

Manuel Quintero is retiring after eight years of service as the international programme coordinator for the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). He took time to reflect on the mission of EAPPI, particularly within its current context, as well as aspects of the programme that have been dear to his heart.

To raise awareness on the work of churches and church-related organizations engaged in peace-building efforts in Colombia, the WCC and Caritas Internationalis are promoting an event in New York on 18 August.

Hope in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace formed the integral thread for proceedings at the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Trondheim, Norway this week. The 2016 meeting took place 22-28 June, the second gathering since the Central Committee was elected at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea in 2013.

The faces of those who lead the global ecumenical movement have changed dramatically since 1954, says the head of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rev. Dr Sharon Watkins. Pictures of delegates to the World Council of Churches’ assembly held that year in Evanston, USA, show rows of men in dark suits and ties, most of them white.

Charles R. (“Chuck”) Harper, director of the Latin American human rights resource office at the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1973 to 1992, died on 25 May 2016 in Saint Hilaire d’Ozihan, France. A Presbyterian minister and ecumenical activist, he was the recipient of presidential awards from Chile in 2011 and Argentina in 2014 for his dedication to the defence, protection and restoration of human rights in those countries.

What is the role of religious actors from Africa in preventing incitement to violence which could lead to atrocity crimes? This will be the focal point of a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 9-11 May.

After visiting the United States in a spirit of accompaniment, a World Council of Churches delegation is preparing a report on how churches can help achieve racial justice.

Churches can offer a renewed and reinvigorated response to the sin of racial hatred, violence and discrimination in the early 21st century, the delegation found, while at the same time noting the intense need for change.

“We had heard that racism continues to be an issue in the United States,” said Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee. “But we did not expect to find it so deep, so wide and so pervasive.”

What has contributed to the idea of a “European identity?” And, within a broad-minded vision of secularism, how can churches and other religious communities contribute? In this context, what is the role of Switzerland?

Leaders from churches in the Holy Land met with the heads of faith-based organizations and churches in Atlanta, Georgia (United States) on 19-20 April for a summit that explored the role of US churches in peacemaking in the Middle East.

“Racism remains an issue that divides society and even families,” said Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), in a Washington DC workshop on “the theological basis for lifting the voice of the marginalized.” She noted that these dramatically relevant words were not her own, but are drawn from a WCC study on race undertaken in the 1990s.

The Racial Justice Accompaniment Visit to the USA is a continuation of the WCC’s long history of racial justice work. As part of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, the WCC wishes to listen to and express support for people and churches in the USA, and to encourage the efforts of member churches and ecumenical partners in the US, as well as other justice-seeking movements on these issues.

On March 24, Argentina commemorated the 40th anniversary of the military coup that lasted until 1983 and constituted a deep trauma in Argentina’s national history. Local member churches of the WCC and ecumenical organizations expressed their solidarity with the victims and stressed the importance of keeping the memory alive.