Migration is a fact of life, an instinct to survive and an inevitable consequence of globalization - something we can neither turn our backs on it nor control, declared a statement of participants at a faith-led public hearing in Beirut.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has accepted a one-year position at Yale University in which he will participate in a course examining issues related to religious faith and globalisation.

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.

Three Christian traditions have prepared a joint statement saying that their shared Eucharistic vision is an ethical one through which "our churches may seek to transform the dehumanizing effects of economic, social, and cultural globalization."