It is the living word of God, revealed to us in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the Good News, the euangellion, those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour are to proclaim in all dimensions of their lives. There is a logic in the sequence of the theme chosen for the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which recalled John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth, and the emphasis on the new evangelization of this XIII Ordinary General Assembly. Justification in Christ, the proclamation of the Gospel and the call to holiness belong together in the fellowship of believers, members of the one body of Christ (1. Cor.12:12ff).

The Church is built up when people are being transformed by receiving Christ, the incarnate word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. People become credible and visible disciples of Christ, celebrating the Holy Eucharist, meditating on biblical texts, and witnessing to the Gospel in their homes and families, on the streets or at the workplace as workers, entrepreneurs, researchers and in so many other professions.

We remember the Second Vatican Council as an extraordinary moment of evangelical renewal of the Catholic Church. This was underlined by the Moderator of the WCC's Central Committee, the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, in his address to the recent meeting of the Committee in September this year in Crete. We expressed our gratitude and joy that through the Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) the Catholic Church opened up to the ecumenical movement and gave new impetus to the search for visible unity. The decree gave hope and inspiration to Christians around the world.

World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year, the United Nations has warned. Failing harvests in the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has experienced record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to consume in the next year, says the UN.

"We've not been producing as much as we are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year," said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). With food consumption exceeding the amount grown for six of the past 11 years, countries have run down reserves from an average of 107 days of consumption 10 years ago to under 74 days recently.

Prices of main food crops such as wheat and maize are now close to those that sparked riots in 25 countries in 2008. FAO figures released this week suggest that 870 million people are malnourished and the food crisis is growing in the Middle East and Africa. Wheat production this year is expected to be 5.2% below 2011, with yields of most other crops, except rice, also falling, says the UN.