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A small delegation from the Féderation protestante de France visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 31 August. Received by WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, the delegation included Féderation protestante de France president Rev. Clavairoly, pastor Anne-Laure Danet and Madame Aude Millet, communications director.  

The ecumenical Eglise verte (Green church) movement in France held its first assembly of local groups and churches on World Environment Day, 5 June.

Rev. Jacques Maury, a leading French Protestant who served as president of the Reformed Church of France and then of the Protestant Federation of France, has died at the age of 99.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC ) have met formally on 25-27 June in Paris.

This meeting, under the theme “The normalization of hatred: challenges for Jews and Christians today,” took place at a time of challenges both to religious life in general and to each of our communities in their various contexts,” reads a communique released by the two groups.

The World Water Council (WWC) held its 8th General Assembly 29 November – 1 December, in Marseille, France. In an interview for WCC Communication, Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network (WCC-EWN) expressed discontent over the lack of opportunities for participation of the civil society in the structure and work of the WWC.

More than 220 church leaders representing over 20 churches from Belgium, France, Luxemburg and Switzerland are meeting from 27-31 October in the French city of Lyon for the first Francophone Christian Forum.

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

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.

Hundreds of people from many nations and confessions, among them pastors, priests, laity, nuns, bishops, archbishops and cardinals, joined in a service for God’s Creation at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris during the United Nations climate conference (COP 21) being held in the city.

Faith campaigners have presented a total of 1,780,528 signatures gathered worldwide calling for decisive action to curb global warming. The petitions were delivered to leaders of the United Nations COP 21 climate conference beginning its work in Paris.

WCC Communication has put together a comprehensive kit to offer to the media. It highlights basic information about high-level church leaders and experts from every continent and from several partner organizations attending COP21 who are able to speak about climate change from the perspective of faith communities.

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.

Attacks last week on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, along with attacks on Paris police and shoppers at a Jewish grocery there, triggered vigorous reflections on freedom of expression, religious values and the role of churches in a WCC Communications Forum.

A film about the imposition of a totalitarian form of Islam on a village in Mali has won the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Timbuktu, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, a filmmaker from Mauritania, tells the story of how local people resist the arrival of extremists who want to restrict women's liberty and to outlaw music and football.

Two member churches of the WCC from Reformed and Lutheran traditions have united to become the United Protestant Church of France.