International and church aid groups, including Franciscans International, are deeply concern over the fate of more than 350,000 Tamil civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's northern region of Vanni.

While all aid workers including U.N. staff, on the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, withdrew from the Vanni region which is held by Tamil rebels, the pastors decided to stay.

Leaders of Sri Lanka's Buddhist majority expressed divergent views on resolving the ethnic conflict in their country, speaking to a world churches delegation in the capital Colombo.

Trauma and bitterness are among the challenges Sri Lankan churches must face in promoting peace and reconciliation as the island nation is in the middle of an intense war, a World Council of Churches delegation has learnt.

The executive committee of the World Council of Churches has used the opportunity of its latest gathering in Switzerland to maintain its active concern with many of the world's trouble spot and most pressing humanitarian issues.

A closer look at the Sri Lankan experience may throw some light on other situations where struggles supposedly based on ethnicity or religion turn out to be more complex – and where human rights are of critical importance, says Savi Hensman.

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The funeral of a Sri Lankan Roman Catholic priest tragically killed by a mine blast as he was on his way to distribute supplies to displaced people, has attracted more than 5,000 mourners including Hindus and Muslims.

A war-damaged Anglican church building along Jaffna's main road in Sri Lanka is to become a centre for peace and understanding - as the church seeks to join other non-violent groups within civil society working for an end to the country's decades long conflict.

Churches will fail in their mission if violence goes unabated in strife-torn Sri Lanka, a Roman Catholic bishop in the country has warned. He also backed the World Council of Churches' work on peace-building.