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A second round of dialogue between World Council of Churches (WCC) members and Pentecostals was inaugurated last week in Baar, Switzerland. A group of seventeen Protestant, Orthodox and Pentecostal Christians met to re-launch the work begun by the first Joint Consultative Group between the WCC and Pentecostals from 2000 to 2005.

Churches throughout the world are preparing for next year's Week of prayer for Christian unity which will mark the 100th anniversary of the event. Worship resources in four languages have already been put at their disposal on the website of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The Faith and Order standing commission has called for a meeting of the plenary commission to take place in October 2009. The plenary commission - noted as the most diverse church-based theological forum in the world - will bring a wealth of confessional and regional perspectives to Faith and Order's work for the unity of the church. The call for a full commission meeting was voiced as the standing commission met at the Villa Notre Dame, Crans-Montana, Switzerland, from 12 - 18 June 2007 under the leadership of its moderator, Metropolitan Vassilios of Constantia.

He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak (Mk 7:37) - the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2007 calls Christians to express their growing unity both by "breaking the silence" and by joining together in responding to human suffering.

The coordinator of the stewards programme at central committee says he is in that position because he himself was inspired by being part of a similar programme seven years ago.

"An honourable and devoted servant of the Gospel and of the cause of Christian unity" and "a pioneer of the ecumenical movement" is how World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia describes Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, who died on 2 August 2006, in a tribute issued today.

At its first meeting, the WCC's newly-appointed Standing Commission on Faith and Order named six officers to oversee its work until the next WCC Assembly in 2013. Following an address by WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia, the Standing Commission also outlined major areas of study for the period.

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