The head of a world churches body which has been highly critical of the policies of the state of Israel toward the Palestinians has unequivocally condemned the recent bomb outrage against a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches has told his UN counterpart that the ecumenical body and its members in Africa are planning for the monitoring of elections scheduled in Zimbabwe.
Presided by an African woman, and including three young people, eight women, and strong representation from the South, the search committee for a new World Council of Churches head has set to work.
Election issues fresh Kenya and Pakistan, and the larger picture of democratic electoral processes, formed the focus for three public statements adopted by the World Council of Churches' central committee meeting in Geneva.
The Rev Kjell Magne Bondevik, former prime minister of Norway and now moderator of the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, wants to see its public statements carry a distinctly religious tone.
Representatives on the governing body of the 349 member World Council of Churches, which brings together Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican Christians and cooperates with the Roman Catholic Church, have been exploring a wider grouping.
Ethnic and political divisions have prevented church leaders in Kenya from responding to the political crisis in their country, the main governing body of the WCC has been told by its general secretary, the Rev Samuel Kobia.
Kingston, Jamaica, will be the host city for the World Council of Churches' International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011, it has been announced - marking a decade of activity promoting practical responses to violence.
New expressions of Christianity, the growing prominence of the global South, the impact of globalization and increasing religious diversity are radically changing the shape of the church says the head of the world's largest church body.
Two church communions from opposite sides of the globe were welcomed into full fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Wednesday, increasing the membership of the global Christian body, the largest of its kind, to 349.