A Common Word Between Us and You DC for President Barack Obama on 21 January 2009. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright referred to A Common Word during her testimony before the US Senate in February 2009, and Pope Benedict XVI referred to A Common Word on several occasions on 8 and 9 May 2009, during the course of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In the course of 2008 "A Common Word" inspired a number of initiatives between Muslims and Christians, including: Nearly 700 articles have appeared about "A Common Word" in English language press outlets around the world. Virtually every newspaper in the Middle
Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions while Andrew Smith, who had been Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, was made a junior minister at the Department for Education and Employment. Michael Meacher, who had been Shadow Minister for Environmental Protection within the Shadow Cabinet, was given the non cabinet position of Minister of State for the Environment, and attended cabinet meetings where the Environment was discussed, and a position of Minister of State for Transport was similarly created, initially held by Gavin Strang. In June 2001, the department was renamed the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), with the Environment portfolio being merged