‘Caring for the environment is not an optional extra’, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams said at the launch of a scheme to encourage churches to prioritise green concerns. He said that looking after God’s creation was inextricably part of all Christians’ responsibility to their brothers and sisters worldwide, especially those living in poverty. The Eco Church initiative is backed by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Christian Aid, Tearfund and others who question whether we want to pass on a liveable world to our children and grandchildren. Some in the Church would argue that they could not afford the time or money to consider ecological concerns. Lord Williams’s response is that we cannot afford not to. The Eco Church website provides a survey to see how environmentally aware churches are in areas of worship, teaching, buildings, land, community and lifestyle. See also

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in 2010 under a Swedish-issued European arrest warrant for the crime of rape. He claimed asylum inside the Ecuadorian embassy, after the UK Supreme Court ruled that he should be deported to Sweden on charges of sexual molestation. Today, a UN panel has stated that Assange is being arbitrarily detained; he should be allowed to go free and compensated. However, the Foreign Office say that the panel’s ruling is not binding, and it intends to contest it formally. Previous such rulings have gone against countries with some of the world's worst human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Egypt. So this decision against Sweden and Britain in favour of Mr Assange is controversial.

Across the nations, people are crossing barriers to proclaim the crucified and risen Christ and are expressing His love and compassion among those who live and die without Him. SIM is just one of many mission agencies. Originally known as Sudan Inland Mission, in the 1980s SIM joined other mission agencies and became known as ‘Serving in Mission’ .It has 4,000+ workers in 70+ countries serving God among many diverse people groups in every continent. These workers are an international community of seventy nationalities, in a wide variety of career fields. Please pray for more peoples with a variety of skills and who love Jesus to be willing to use their skills on a ministry team in a foreign country. Pray for more Christ-centred churches to be birthed. Pray for those working together with established churches to fulfil God’s mission across cultures locally and globally.

The Zika virus, already common in parts of Africa and Asia and linked with hundreds of severe birth defects, is now spreading with alarming speed in the Americas. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now declared this an international public health emergency ‘of alarming proportions’, requiring a coordinated international response. Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff has issued a decree allowing public officials to enter abandoned or empty homes, by force if necessary, to eradicate the breeding grounds of the Aedes mosquito (which carries the virus). The officials will carry out educational campaigns and create public guidelines. They will target the mosquito breeding grounds in the north-eastern states, whose governors attended a teleconference with the president on Friday, along with the governors of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo states. After the teleconference Rousseff admitted that Brazil is ‘losing the fight against Aedes’ but vowed that it will not lose the war.