Search results

The leaders of the (Anglican) Church of England, the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Church in Germany have warned against Europe taking advantage of the credit crisis to row back on climate change, in a letter to the president of France and current EU president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The message that climate changes threatens human rights and must therefore be considered an ethical issue will be brought to the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently under way in Poznań, Poland by a delegation representing the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the exploitation of the migrants' work.

Extensive and quick reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the wealthy parts of the world is one of the demands in the Uppsala Manifesto, which has been signed at a 27-30 November Interfaith Climate Summit in Uppsala, Sweden.Â

Radical changes and tangible commitments from world leaders are needed if an equitable and sustainable global economic system is to be built, says an ecumenical delegation attending a UN conference on financing for development starting tomorrow in Qatar.

After six days of intense discussions on migration, the conflict in Sri Lanka and climate change, of common prayer and practical efforts to make the voice of the churches on these issues heard at the United Nations, the UN Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ended with good results on Friday.

At the 16-21 November United Nations Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Christians from the Pacific islands have appealed for worldwide solidarity with regard to climate change, a question of life and death in their communities.

Straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, is the small island country of Kiribati.  The vast majority of its 33 coral atolls never exceed three meters above sea level, making Kiribati's 94,000 inhabitants vulnerable to a rare danger: their country is sinking. Â

"As Christians, we are called to stand with those who are victims of oppression, poverty or violence," Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Public Witness said in advance of the WCC's United Nations Advocacy Week, 16 to 21 November in New York.

Not only the Pacific islands and their inhabitants, but also "the Northern circumpolar areas and the people living there are already suffering from the effects of the changing environment", according to the participants of a 28-30 October seminar organized by the Council of Christian Churches in the Barents Region. Â

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged the citizens of the world's more privileged nations to insist on emission cuts, in a video message that was recently posted on the online platform youtube.

The recently established Action by Churches Together (ACT) International Climate Change group held its first meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 18-19 September 2008.

The spiritual and moral dimension s of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.

By Annegret Kapp (*)

By Jean Blaylock (*)

"Humanity unfortunately has transgressed the Divine command for the protection of creation", said the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in his message on World Environment Day today.  "We experience the results of this neglectful and avaricious behavior today, as weak-willed spectators of the repercussions of catastrophic climactic changes."

By Christian Johannessen (*)

"The ecumenical movement is only faithful to the Gospel, if it is a movement of hope confronting itself with the reality of the severe threats to life that people are facing in today's world", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in Lunteren, the Netherlands, on Friday 11 April. Those threats include "the deadly scandal of poverty, diseases such as HIV and AIDS, the devastating and destructive consequences of climate change, and war - including the re-emerging danger of the use of nuclear weapons".

This year the World Water Day (22 March) falls on the Saturday before Easter (according to the calendar followed by Western churches). It also culminates the "Seven Weeks for Water" campaign by the Ecumenical Water Network.

In a wide ranging discussion at the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) the UN secretary general, H.E. Ban Ki-Moon and WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia found agreement for the two world bodies to work more closely on several global issues, particularly climate change.