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Lasting friendships and gleaning a wealth of knowledge are the abiding memory of students every year who graduate from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey outside Geneva.

A “Religious Consultation on Social Cohesion in Iraq,” held 13-15 in Beirut, released a final communiqué, the fruit of wide interreligious participation that included religious and ethnic leaders of all Iraqi components working together for peace in Iraq and the Middle East.

An interfaith consultation held 12-16 December in Beirut, Lebanon, offered the chance for participants from different traditions to share their vision for social and religious cohesion in Iraq, assessing the current context and envisioning the way forward.

Five churches in Argentina have signed a letter of intent with the National Pedagogical University in Buenos Aires, marking the first step toward potentially reopening a theological library that includes the largest university-level Protestant documentary collection in Latin America.

The Churches of Lebanon, Middle East Council of Churches, and the Taizé community are holding an International Ecumenical Youth Meeting in Beirut from 22-26 March.

Interview with pastor Martin Robra on the visit of Pope Francis to the World Council of Churches by Antonio Spadaro, SJ

Through a ceremony on 26 January, the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey saw 21 students from 20 countries and 10 denominations embark on a future of ecumenical work in their respective home countries and contexts.

Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon was born in Germany, but he is also very much a product of Africa. Since September 2016, he has held the post of Professor of Ecumenical Missiology at the WCC's Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, a post he assumed just in time for the celebrations of 70 years’ serving ecumenism worldwide.

War, ethnic conflict, millions of refugees and a deteriorating humanitarian situation provide a bleak background for discussion of the Middle East.

Church representatives at a recent Oikotree Global Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa stressed the need to support peoples'€™ movements promoting justice in the economy and ecology, a concern, they say, that lies at the heart of the faith.

“Quite often, it is not the relationship between the Muslim majority and the Christian minority that was, and is, at stake but justice, political participation, human rights and national dignity,” said Dr Tarek Mitri. He added that “community-specific anxiety could not overshadow the common worries of Christians and Muslims" in the Middle East.

by Theodore Gill (*)

Conflicts in Congo and Gaza, recognition of the International Year of Reconciliation, the impact of the global economic crisis on the WCC budget and an update on the election of a new general secretary were topics of discussion and action by the WCC Executive Committee which met in Bossey, Switzerland, 17 to 20 February 2009.

By Annegret Kapp*

The Ecumenical Institute at Bossey has announced plans for a strengthened teaching faculty that will reinforce its position as a leading world centre for ecumenical formation and research.

by Henrike Müller (*)