News
A team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in Tuvalu from 25-27 May 2010. The team will be travelling as "Living Letters" on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Tuvalu is a small island nation made up of nine tiny atolls near Fiji that stands barely a metre above sea level and is threatened by rising sea levels. In the past years alone, Tuvalu has already lost one metre of land around the circumference of their largest atoll.
According to climate scientists, the 12,000 people living on Tuvalu and the inhabitants of other small islands in the South Pacific are facing the risk of being submerged within the coming decades, because of the consistently rising sea level.
The case of Tuvalu clearly shows how human induced climate change affects the livelihoods and safety of people, and therefore becomes a challenge to peace.
"The role of the church is to accommodate any issues that jeopardize the way forward for our people ... because the people are carrying God’s image" said the Rev. Tofiga Falani, president of the Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu, during the United Nations climate change negotiations, COP 15, in Copenhagen (Denmark). We rely so much on hope and your prayers," he said. "Our petition is that we want to survive."
Living Letters are small ecumenical teams visiting a country to listen, learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order to overcome violence, promote and pray for peace.
The “Living Letters” team travelling to Tuvalu in May 2010 will be composed of:
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Bishop Sofie Petersen, Lutheran, Greenland
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Elias Abramides, Ecumenical Patriarchate, Argentina, member of the WCC Working Group on Climate Change
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Nikos Kosmidis, Church of Greece, member of Echos (the WCC Commission on youth in the ecumenical movement)
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Arthur Shoo, director, Empowerment and Capacity Building, All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC)
Host: Rev. Tofiga Falani, president of the Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu
Country profile and WCC member churches in Tuvalu
WCC activities for climate justice