News and stories

The World Council of Churches Central Committee on Tuesday, 1 September, adopted a minute on the right of conscientious objection to military service. It cites a recent WCC study showing "that in many places churches face challenges of conscientious objection", which allows those whose conscience prohibits them from military service to engage in alternate means of service.

“Tears are not enough.” Fernando Enns spoke that phrase in introductory remarks to the World Council of Churches central committee on 28 Aug. It was repeated several times during a morning plenary session on the WCC’s upcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC).

The armed conflict in Angola ended seven years ago, but the consequences of four decades of war are felt still today. And women seem to be bearing most of the brunt.

Almost 30 Christian peace organizations from the United Kingdom will come together from 28 to 31 August to spread their message of peace at the Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival, a Christian music and arts festival that was first held in 1974.

Any solution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must engage the whole nation - not just the eastern region where violence is centred, a small ecumenical team visiting the Bas Congo and Kasai Oriental provinces has learned.

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has recently created a taskforce on human trafficking in an effort to raise awareness across the WEA community that represents 420 million evangelical Christians worldwide. The taskforce, headed by the WEA spokesperson on human trafficking Commissioner Christine MacMillan, aims to prevent and combat trafficking by developing strategic and effective actions and tools that will help equip the local churches and...

As the world faces an "unprecedented situation of increasing violence, proliferation of non-state armed groups, and non-international armed conflicts", the "effective compliance with the Geneva Conventions" appears as an "urgent priority", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a statement marking the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.

An international ecumenical team that visited Honduras on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) has encouraged the churches in Honduras to "accompany the people in their search for peace with justice and the re-establishment of democracy".

The more radical social and political changes are, the more likely they are to bring out tension amongst social actors. It is in a context such as this - a Living Letters delegation visiting Bolivia in mid July heard - that Bolivian churches struggle to overcome violence in society.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia urged the Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to "ensure the safety of all citizens" as well as seeing that "all perpetrators [of] acts of violence and human rights violations are brought to justice".