The Vatican official responsible for links with other churches, theologian Cardinal Walter Kasper, has rejected suggestions of a "standstill" in the search for Christian unity.

Leaders of churches actively engaged in cooperation and the search for common witness will meet in Greece early next month to address the question of “Christian unity from a new perspective”.

The lessons of a 16th century theologian born in France speak directly to a post-modern world hungry for peaceful and united communities according to the president of a global network of Protestant churches.

An international expert on church unity has urged the Roman Catholic Church to declare officially that its longstanding excommunication of Martin Luther no longer applies.

Ambitions for church unity are unrealistic and are being replaced in practice by local action, national church leaders have said. The heads of the churches responded to questions put to them by the Church Times and the Baptist Times

Churches should be prepared to confront their differences honestly and to examine them in the light scripture, Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I told a service to celebrate 60 years since the World Council of Churches was founded.

As churches throughout the world absorb the significance of the recent ground-breaking Global Christian Forum, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has made a new appointment to a post aimed at promoting dialogue on key issues.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians are moving towards unity, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics declared at the end of his recent general audience in St Peter's Square, Rome. The Pope announced an international commission on the issue.

Representatives of Europe's main Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches say they hope a six-day ecumenical assembly in the Romanian city of Sibiu will give a new impetus to the movement for Christian unity - and enable them to meet today's challenges.