Churches in Latin America are engaging positively with Pentecostals, but not back-peddling on social justice

After a visit to Sudan which included discussions with political and religious leaders in Khartoum and Juba, an African interfaith delegation has called on the international community to honour its political and financial pledges to sustain Sudan's peace process.

Tackling poverty and witnessing to the Gospel message are among the first shared concerns of the newly constituted Christian Churches Together in the USA, a pan-church body which celebrated its official launch in Pasadena, California, at a 6-9 February 2007 gathering.

An ecumenical (inter-church) consultation of senior Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican leaders has issued a statement to Europe's major politicians ‚Ä' arguing that constructive dialogue among peoples, religions and civic institutions is the way forward for the continent and the EU, underpinned by political pluralism and neutrality.

Anglican, Catholic, Free Church and Orthodox leaders in England are asking parish churches and local congregations throughout the country to pray for ‚Äòthe little town of Bethlehem' as they approach the final week of Advent ‚Ä' the Church's season of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Church and civic leaders in Bethlehem, together with the Anglican and Catholic bishops of Jerusalem, have welcomed the plans by UK church leaders to make an Advent pilgrimage to Bethlehem - which is facing isolation, depopulation and economic collapse due to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the presence of the separation wall.

Pope Benedict XVI has prayed with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomeos I, who is often referred to as the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, making a step to healing a 1000 year rift, which the pontiff said obstructs the proclamation of the Gospel - writes Luigi Sandri for Ecumenical News International.