News and stories

A call for solidarity with the poor was delivered to a gathering of religious, political and civil society leaders from all over the world by one of the presidents of the WCC. The meeting on the topic “Bound to Live Together: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” is taking place from 11-13 September in Munich, Germany.

Remembering the thousands of people killed in the coordinated assault on 11 September 2001 in the United States of America, and its unfortunate consequences in Afghanistan and Iraq, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sends out a message honouring the victims, and promoting a culture of peace.

“The Pacific is a region that displays many warm and strong expressions of peace,’’ WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said in a speech to the Pacific Conference of Churches 50th anniversary celebration held in Samoa this past week.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has extended his sympathy to United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon following the 26 August bombing of UN offices in Abuja, Nigeria. The suicide car-bombing is reported to have left at least 23 persons dead and dozens wounded.

Myanmar was visited by an ecumenical solidarity team from 4 to 9 August as part of the council’s commitment to accompany churches in conflict situations. This was a follow-up to a WCC Living Letters team visit in late 2010.

As the world's attention turns toward the tenth anniversary of 11 September 2001, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit ponders what we may learn from more recent acts of terror in his homeland.

Each year on 21 September the WCC calls churches and parishes to observe the International Day of Prayer for Peace. This year the WCC is asking the 1,000 people who attended the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston in May 2011 to offer a prayer for peace as a follow-up to that important event.

Voicing an appeal for the renunciation of violence by all sides in ongoing political conflict in Syria, the WCC general secretary has stated, “it is particularly urgent that the army and government security agencies cease the indiscriminate use of force” against demonstrators, moving instead to protect all Syrian citizens’ lives, dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“Religions as instruments of peace” is the subtitle of a 2011 summer course on “Building an interfaith community”. Twenty-three students from more than a dozen nations have assembled at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland for the course which runs from 4 to 29 July.

Conflicts over water threaten peace in the world, the WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit told a gathering in Germany on the banks of the River Danube to mark the end of the Decade to Overcome Violence.