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"€œThe situation of human rights violations remains worrisome in the Philippines. It ranges from vilification, harassment, torture, evacuation due to military operations and other inhumane treatment of political prisoners," Marie Hilao-Enriquez told the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and other WCC staff during an encounter in Manila, Philippines on 21 March.

Since 1982 there has been only one official statement of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on mission and evangelism. Now in 2012 the WCC's Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) is preparing another statement to invoke new understanding of mission and evangelism amidst changing world and ecclesial scenarios.

A group of Christian leaders from Odisha (formerly Orissa), India visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) offices, sharing their experiences on working for religious freedom and lobbying for justice on behalf of religious minorities during the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

By George Arende (*)

Dr Marlon Weichert, a prominent Brazilian human rights advocate, visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) offices in Geneva on Tuesday, 8 November. In an interview, he appreciated the role of churches in assisting Brazil as it comes to terms with its painful past and envisions a better future. A truth commission in Brazil, he says, will start to make sense when churches continue using faith values in protecting human rights.

Dr Sarojini Nadar is a theologian from South Africa working on the issues of gender, religion and health for many years. She is currently serving as senior lecturer and director of the Gender and Religion programme, School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Nadar has been deeply involved with churches to raise awareness about women

A series of Biblical meditations on gender, reproductive and sexual health is being launched by the World Council of Churches (WCC), inviting congregations and individual Christians to make November a month of reflection on health and healing.

Wilhelm Pierola Iturralde is the president of the Bolivian Association "Joining Hands for Life", an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Programme which works closely with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to address water problems in Bolivia. Iturralde was one of the participants at the Global Forum of the Ecumenical Water Network in Kenya, Nairobi.

The Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, outside Geneva, Switzerland, is inaugurating its first summer school by hosting an internationally focused session on communication and religion.

Hendrew Lusey has never forgotten the words he first heard at a World Council of Churches (WCC) workshop on human sexuality in 2002. At that time, he had recently been appointed the regional coordinator for central Africa with the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA).

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, is in Bern to meet the leadership of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (FSPC) its member churches. The agenda included a discussion of core issues facing the worldwide ecumenical movement.

Dr Susan Parry has turned her vision of the “AIDS-competent church” into a reality that has helped thousands of people across southern Africa and the rest of the world whose lives are affected by HIV.

Church communication needs to be personal and authentic, and that is why it has traditionally been centred on face-to-face contacts.

As a 10-year-old schoolgirl, on 6 August 1945, at 8:15 a.m., Setsuko Thurlow, then Nakamura, suddenly saw a brilliant bluish light flash outside her schoolroom window. “I remember the sensation of floating in the air. When I regained consciousness, in the total darkness and silence, I found myself in the rubble.”

Realizing a peaceful reunification of Korea would not only be a gift for the Korean people but also for the people of Asia and the world as a whole. For the church, both in and outside Korea, realizing a unified Korea will also mean the church being unified in their efforts.

“We must avoid stereotypes,” said Rev. Dr Nikolaus Schneider, chair of the council that coordinates relations and activities within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). As diverse groups encounter one another in the contemporary dynamics of world Christianity, he added, the key questions are whether the calling of the church is being fulfilled by a given community, and whether Jesus Christ is to be found there.

Dr Katharina Kunter came upon the World Council of Churches (WCC) as an object of research through the discipline of Cold War studies, analyzing the encounter of Christian bodies in East and West from the end of the second world war to the fall of the Berlin Wall. She soon came to realize that the interplay of “northern” churches with the global South was equally influential in transforming attitudes and practices of the WCC and its member churches during those decades.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit (left) met Thursday with  Rigmor Aasrud (right), Norway Minister of Government Administration, Reform & Church Affairs, at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva to provide background on the work of the WCC.

By Aneth Lwakatare (*)

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) today in Geneva, members and partners recognized past achievements and discussed opportunities and challenges for future coordinated Christian witness for justice.