Feature story
The World Council of Churches (WCC) recognizes that creation is a gift of God for us to care for and to share. Greed and overconsumption drive this crisis. It demands a radical lifestyle change and a new consciousness that values nature for its own sake.
The Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025-2034), launched in June 2025 at the WCC central committee meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, represents a 10-year commitment by churches to metanoia - a fundamental change of hearts and minds towards caring for creation. Rooted in prophetic witness and the biblical concept of jubilee, it calls churches worldwide to intensify their witness through prayer, advocacy, and transformative action.
"COP30 can be an opportunity for member churches and people of faith to start their own transformation to be the protagonist the world needs," says Rev. Henrik Grape, WCC senior advisor for Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice.
The decade offers six practical pathways for churches to implement:
Transform theology and worship: Reframe theology to reflect care for creation as central to Christian faith. Observe the Season of Creation annually. Create space for lament while nurturing hope rooted in the resurrected Christ.
Promote holistic analysis: Help churches understand how climate connects with gender, race, economics, and colonialism—recognizing that vulnerable frontline communities bear the greatest burden.
Equip faith communities: Provide practical Climate Justice Toolkits and training programmes. Teach ecological metanoia. Train "climate chaplains.”
Mobilize collective action: Build momentum through Global Climate Justice Fasts, climate pilgrimages, and interfaith campaigns. Collaborate with ACT Alliance, Lutheran World Federation, and other ecumenical and interfaith partners.
Advocate for systemic change: Churches exercise their moral responsibility to speak prophetically, compelling governments to raise climate ambition. Campaign for Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, support climate litigation, and push for ecocide recognition. Support the "Turn Debt into Hope" campaign and strengthen Indigenous Peoples' territorial rights.
Invest in grassroots solutions: Remove funds from fossil fuel companies and redirect resources towards renewable energy projects, Indigenous-led protection, and solidarity funds. Install solar panels, reduce waste, create community gardens - practices that embody the Economy of Life, replacing extraction with regeneration.
These pathways pursue a transformation that is ecological, spiritual, and reaches across societies. As faith communities, WCC rejects ecological despair and maintains steadfast hope that transformation is possible through the resurrected Christ.
"The climate crisis demands faithful participation, not perfection. It calls for courage even without certainty, and action now - not waiting - to safeguard the sacred web of life for generations to come," Rev. Grape added.
Follow WCC's COP30 coverage at www.oikoumene.org/cop30
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Daily COP30 updates connect churches to climate negotiations (News Release, 5 November)
WCC calls COP30 a "kairos moment" for climate transformation (News Release, 4 November)
