As a wave of ringing bells embraced the globe, churches sent a strong message to world leaders gathered at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen: There is only one world and in order to preserve it, bold action needs to be taken now.

"Water should be for everybody, because it is the blood of Mother Earth." These were the words of Peruvian Congresswoman María Sumire during her speech at the conference on "Water for Life and Creation", held in Lima, Peru, 23-25 November.

Rows of neat suburban houses stand on the parched, barren hillside. A water tower looms over them, irrigating lush greenery in the gardens. But outside this West Bank settlement's perimeter fence sits the tiny Bedouin community of Umm Al Kher, whose residents are desperate for water.

As nations are spelling out their bargaining positions for the negotiations on a new international climate deal to take place in Copenhagen next month, churches around the world are trying to ring home the message that climate protection is an ethical and spiritual issue.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has said "there are growing expectations that meaningful progress can be made as a result of the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Copenhagen next month," but "sacrifices will have to be made by all". The remarks were part of a speech on "Saving the Soul of the Planet" Bartholomew gave in Washington, D.C. as part of a two-and-a-half week visit to the United States.

Governments, UN agencies, international NGOs and civil society advocates gathered at a Water Day in Barcelona today, to urge negotiators to consider the critical role that water plays in climate change adaptation.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee adopted a "Statement on eco-justice and ecological debt" on Wednesday, 2 September. The statement proposes that Christians have a deep moral obligation to promote ecological justice by addressing our debts to peoples most affected by ecological destruction and to the earth itself. The statement addresses ecological debt and includes hard economic calculations as well as biblical,...

"The Church’s task is to stand on the side of the vulnerable, regardless of whether we work in India, Sweden or some other part of the world," say Church of Sweden and Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) in India on the occasion of the World Water Week in Sweden.

“Nature is our home,” said Dr. Maria Sumire Conde from the Quecha community of Peru. She says some of those who have come there, however, have not been good guests.

ENI-09-0597 By Maurice Malanes

Baguio City, Philippines, 28 July (ENI)--As a boy, Carlito Cenzon drank water straight from springs so he knew what it meant to feel connected with the planet. Now, as the Roman Catholic bishop of Baguio in northern Philippines, Cenzon laments, "People have lost their interconnectedness with Mother Earth ever since bottled water became another well-advertised commercial consumer item." He was speaking at a 28 July...