News and stories

The nativity of Jesus Christ is proclaimed by angelic choirs in the heights of heaven, and the joyous news is echoed afterwards by modest shepherds in fields near Bethlehem. Meanwhile, a mother and father care for their newborn child. No place for this family could be found in the inn, so they shelter among livestock. The circumstances are strikingly humble, yet their infant is the occasion of the angels’ song: “Glory to God in the highest...

In a letter dated 21 December 2010, the WCC general secretary expressed thanks to Philippine president Benigno S. Aquino III for the release of 43 community health workers and other health professionals who have been imprisoned since their arrest on 6 February in Morong, Rizal province. Military authorities held the detainees on suspicion of being associated with the New People's Army movement.

“May 2010 is when it all started", Yna (not her real name), mother of 17-year-old Yuri, told a group of international church representatives who had come to the Philippines in early December in order to review the human rights situation there. "A group of military men were sent to live in our village and to observe the general election that was to take place. They did not leave even after the election was over. We knew why they stayed: they...

“Good intentions are not enough,” said the secretary of the Philippine department of justice, Leila de Lima, during a meeting with the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation currently visiting the Philippines. She met with the “Living Letters” team on Friday 3 December.

“Your presence here is a sign that we are not alone in these times of massive human rights violations,” Fr Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, told a delegation of Christians from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Europe and Africa on 2 December.

“We believe in change and ask that you continue to pray for us.” This was the message an international team of church representatives heard again and again, as they visited people and churches in Myanmar recently.

An international team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in the Philippines from 1 to 5 December. It will be the last in a series of "Living Letters" visits to various countries organized ahead of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May 2011.

At the 50th meeting since its foundation in 1946, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) decided to refocus, establishing four thematic working groups, in order better to respond to the needs of the member churches.

What does it mean for the church to call for peace in a world where many forms of racism persist? This is one of the questions a World Council of Churches (WCC) conference on racism tried to answer.

At a time when there are signs of hope emerging from the churches in the Middle East around the conflict in Palestine and Israel, a delegation led by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will be travelling to the region to emphasize the need for a “just peace”.