As the global food crisis continues to unfold and impact on the poorest, World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia has called on international institutions and governments to move into swift action.

Amidst rapid social and political changes in Eastern and Central Europe, leading representatives of theological institutions in the region gathered in Romania recently to seek more mutual cooperation and development.

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.

The UN Liaison Office of the World Council of Churches and Mennonites have co-sponsored an international dialogue between some 300 religious leaders and political figures - including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The WCC has honoured a former general secretary, Philip Potter, a Methodist from the West Indies who helped the churches take a high profile role in the struggle against apartheid and white minority regimes in southern Africa.

The executive committee of the World Council of Churches has announced their decision to extend the contract of Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, the current WCC general secretary, through to the time when a new general secretary takes office.

Can saints and martyrs – or simply Christians who lived exemplary lives – help unite and focus the churches in the C21st century? An international group of experts will discuss this and related questions at a symposium in Italy.

As the world is rocked by financial and other crises, the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee will meet in Lübeck, Germany on 23-26 September 2008 to look at responses from faith communities.

A global conference on the concept of "Promised Land" that aired different theological approaches to this key issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has given church leaders and theologians new views to take home to their churches.

Organisers of the International Day of Prayer for Peace, which is observed on 21 September 2008, say that record numbers of churches, groups and individuals will be joining in all across the world.