A major North American peace church agency, Mennonite Central Committee, is adding its weight to a Spring mobilisation against the cruelty of cluster bombs - via a bill in the US Senate.

European head of state makes a surprise visit to peace churches in Latin America

St Francis of Assisi's prayer, 'Make me a channel of your peace', was the theme for a celebration of common commitment to overcome violence at a gathering of Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church representatives on 17 February 2007 in Wittenberg, Germany.

Israeli soldiers demolished homes in three Palestinian villages near bypass road 317 on 14 February, reports Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) from Al Tuwani.

Against the backdrop of a country still transitioning from civil war to an elected presidential system of rule, Christians representing two of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Mennonite conferences, Communaut?© Evang?©lique Mennonite (CEM) and Communaut?© Mennonite au Congo (CMCO), have welcomed delegates from Mennonite Church USA in a relationships building exercise.

As a coordinator for a project documenting how a long-running armed conflict continues to impact Colombia's Protestant churches, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker Janna Hunter-Bowman spent hours poring through horrific details of deaths and threats and exploring how Christians are continuing to live out their faith in the midst of pervasive violence - writes Marla Pierson Lester.

Hundreds of Mennonites living in Canada may face losing their Canadian citizenship on account of the non-recognition of church marriages in Latin America, where some 7,000 of their ancestors moved in the 1920s, reports UPI and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

A half-million US dollars to counter world hunger, and to give substance to a commitment the UN Millennium Development Goals, was raised in 2006 by the Global Food Crisis Fund and the growing projects it spawned through the Foods Resource Bank - reports the Church of the Brethren, an Anabaptist denomination which sponsors the anti-poverty work.

Keen public interest in Anabaptism, the positive growth of initiatives from churches related to that tradition, decline in some areas, and challenges in relating Christian faith and public life were among the issues highlighted in reports from seven countries delivered by 20 Mennonite church leaders from across Europe who gathered recently for their annual meeting.