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What do indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children? Dr Marie Wilson, TRC Commissioner, responds in this wide-ranging interview with the WCC Communication.

The United States-based organization “Black Methodist United” has released three documents to help churches and communities confront racism by taking deliberate action.

An historic vote in Canada has set the stage for close cooperation between two North American churches.

The nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 revealed the brutality and dangerous logic of war, money and power, according to an Indigenous Anglican bishop from Canada.

Seventy years after nuclear fireballs exploded over two Japanese cities, an ecumenical group of pilgrims has come to Hiroshima to listen to those who survived and renew the struggle against their own countries’ continued reliance on nuclear weapons.

“It is time to abandon all support for retaining nuclear weapons. It is time to refuse to accept that the mass destruction of other people can be a legitimate form of protection of ourselves,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at the Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima.

«Il est temps d’abandonner tout soutien au maintien de l’arme nucléaire. Il est temps de ne plus accepter que la destruction massive d’autres peuples puisse être une forme légitime de protection pour nous-mêmes», a déclaré l’évêque Mary Ann Swenson lors d’un service anglican-catholique du souvenir pour la paix à la cathédrale catholique du mémorial de la paix d’Hiroshima, au Japon, le 5 août.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

Au début d'août, des responsables d'Églises de sept pays qui se trouvent face au choix historique de mettre hors la loi ou non les armes nucléaires vont entreprendre un pèlerinage vers les deux villes japonaises dévastées par des bombes atomiques il y a 70 ans.

Bishop Mark MacDonald shared views on indigenous peoples and climate change in an interview with WCC Communications. "We are entering an era in which the public has a broader awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples," he said.

Le public commence à être bien plus conscient des droits des populations autochtones, a déclaré l’évêque Mark MacDonald, président du COE pour l’Amérique du Nord et évêque autochtone national de l’Église anglicane du Canada.

The WCC has condemned the mass killing at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.

In the wake of the release of a summary report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, member churches in Canada belonging to the WCC are beginning what they acknowledge will be a painful pilgrimage toward recognizing the mistreatment of their country’s indigenous peoples and ensuring such abuse will not happen again.

Dans le sillage de la publication d’un rapport de synthèse par la Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada, les Églises membres du COE au Canada entament un pèlerinage – qu’elles admettent douloureux – vers la reconnaissance des mauvais traitements infligés aux populations autochtones du pays, tout en veillant à ce que de tels abus ne se reproduisent plus jamais.

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit preached at the 7 May ecumenical service in Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide.

Le secrétaire général du COE a fait une prédication lors du service œcuménique organisé le 7 mai à la Cathédrale nationale de Washington, aux États-Unis, pour les commémorations du centenaire du génocide arménien.

“Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the values upheld by our respective faith traditions”, representatives of some 50 Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish organizations said on 1 May. The inter-religious statement came in a joint call to the 191 governments participating in the world’s largest disarmament treaty. The call, co-sponsored by the WCC, was made during civil society presentations to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City.

«Les armes nucléaires sont incompatibles avec les valeurs que défendent nos traditions religieuses respectives», ont affirmé les représentants d’une cinquantaine d’organisations issues des traditions chrétienne, bouddhiste, musulmane et juive. La déclaration interreligieuse constitue un appel commun adressé aux 191 États parties au plus grand traité de désarmement au monde. L’appel, présenté entre autres par le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), a été lancé lors de la séance d’interventions de la société civile à la Conférence des Parties chargée d’examiner le Traité sur la non-prolifération des armes nucléaires (TNP), à New York.

The prospect of armed robots taking human lives, and whether to ban autonomous weapons before they are made, concentrated the minds of governmental and non-governmental delegates at a United Nations forum in Geneva in mid-April.