From 31 May to 3 June, representatives from the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group, Working Group on Climate Change, and the Young People in the Ecumenical Movement of the World Council of Churches formed a Pilgrim Team Visit to indigenous Sami communities in the south of Norway.
On World Food Safety Day, clerics and farmers in Kenya reflected about aflatoxin—a group of poisons found in maize and peanuts—that continue to cause deaths and related diseases in the East African country.
The year often begins with making firm resolutions, taken with earnestness and commitment. The following weeks and months are familiarly littered with broken promises and failures. Successful and consistent adherence to new years’ resolutions is, from my experience, rare. To change this pattern of failure, I look to the holy scripture for help.
A recent webinar, “Debt Cancellation as Anti-Racism in times of Black Lives Matter protests,” explored how debt cancellation for African and other developing countries can be an instrument for overcoming racism.
The following message was delivered by Rev. Canon Gideon B. Byamugisha during an ecumenical service on 1 December, World AIDS Day. He reflected on the theme ““Let us overcome inequalities with justice and love.”
Over 23-29 October, a Global Conference of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora (AAD) revisited the historical 1945 Manchester Pan-African Conference and critically reviewed progress made since then. Speakers and participants also worked to determine and develop effective global strategies to radically change the lot of Africans and people of African descent globally—and thereby defeat the scourge of racism in the world.
The food system is a complex web of activities involving production, processing, transport, and consumption. Key issues concerning the food system include how food production affects the natural environment, the impact of food on individual and population health, the governance and economics of food production, its sustainability, and the degree to which we waste food.
El Prof. Dr. h.c. Humberto Martín Shikiya, vicepresidente del Centro Regional Ecuménico de Asesoría y Servicio (CREAS) en Argentina, reflexiona sobre cómo el documento “Al servicio de un mundo herido en solidaridad interreligiosa: Un llamado cristiano a la reflexión y a la acción durante la COVID-19 y más allá” está siendo recibido como un llamado esperanzador a promover la colaboración ecuménica e interreligiosa. El Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) y el Pontificio Consejo para el Diálogo Interreligioso han publicado “Al servicio de un mundo herido” para alentar a las iglesias y las organizaciones cristianas a reflexionar sobre la importancia de la solidaridad interreligiosa en un mundo golpeado por la pandemia de COVID-19.
Prof. Dr h.c. Humberto Martin Shikiya, vice president of the Regional Ecumenical Advisory and Service Center (CREAS) In Argentina, reflects on how “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond” is being received as a hopeful call to collaborate ecumenically and interreligiously. The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue jointly published “Serving a Wounded World” to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we commemorate 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Day), we celebrate the beauty and diversity of creation. We acknowledge the glory of God manifested in the whole creation (Palm 104), and the entire creation praises God (Psalm 65).
Lorraine Netro, who was raised in the Gwich’in First Nation of Old Crow, Yukon (Canada), is part of an indigenous community—but she’s also a global citizen.
“Today’s Arctic peoples are important members of global society,” Netro said. “The survival of Arctic cultures and communities remains tied to the wildlife and landscape of the Arctic Refuge.”
In the words of Prof. Rev. Dr John Langan SJ, a human right "is a right that a human person has simply by virtue of being (human), irrespective of his or her social status, cultural accomplishments, moral merits, religious beliefs, class memberships or cultural relationships.”
Dr Manoj Kurian is coordinator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. We we are now in the midst of observing Churches’ Week of Action on Food, he reflects on this year’s theme, “Grow, Nourish, Sustain Together.”
