At the End of the Promenade, along the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias there is a metal structure some 25 feet high. It is a cut out of the Galilean Lake with gaps on the top and on the bottom to indicate the entry and exit of the waters of the Jordan river. In more normal times the structure is an elaborate fountain with cascading jets of water. But now the fountain is dry. It has been switched off. Israel is in the midst of the driest winter since measurements began over 80 years ago, with only 50 per cent of average seasonal rainfall to date.

The English TV newscast ran a story describing this drought as Israel's next war. The Jerusalem Post reports that pumping of water from the Sea of Galilee, Israel's primary fresh water reservoir, was officially halted late January.

This photograph may have been taken in May 2005, but a partnership between Hampton, N.S. and Piggs Peak, Swaziland is still going strong. Mark Bettle, an elder at St. Paul's, poses with Thandi Nhlengethwa, executive director of the AIDS Information and Support Centre in Piggs Peak. A three-year $15,000 grant from Presbyterian World Service & Development helped fund the partnership.

ENI – Christian leaders from around the world are pushing for a “theology of simplicity and caring” to bring hope to a “prodigal world” teetering under a burden of widespread economic crisis, and climate change.

“The Clergy Care Centre is becoming a sort of centre without walls, as we're expanding beyond our physical centre to work in the rest of Canada,” says Rev. Dr. Andrew Irvine, Director of the Centre for Clergy Care and Congregational Health housed at Knox College, Toronto.

Four potential moderators have been nominated for the 2009 General Assembly, to begin June 7 in Hamilton, Ont. Ballots were sent to presbyteries in December, and the committee to advise the moderator will tally the votes on April 1.

ENI – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia and the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony, which are situated among many of the historic sites associated with the 16th-century reformer Martin Luther have merged to form the Evangelical Church in Central Germany.

ENI – Bishop Paul Verryn of South Africa, who came to prominence fighting apartheid, has called Zimbabwe's crisis a slow genocide. He spoke at a media briefing on an undercover mission in December to Zimbabwe by members of Civicus, an international alliance of non-governmental organizations.

This summer, I attended the International Aids Conference and Ecumenical Preconference in Mexico City as a youth delegate from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. As a student of International Studies at York University's Glendon College, I have a particular interest in international human rights law and policy. And as a person who has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 19 years, I am acutely aware of the difference in medical care between the developed and the developing world. For people who cannot access insulin, my condition often proves fatal within 12 months. But for those who receive adequate care, a long and relatively normal life is possible; the same is true for people infected with HIV.