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In the midst of one of the worst public health crises in the world, Christians in Brazil are upholding their tradition of celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the lead up to Pentecost. For the second year, they will be gathering in prayer without physical gatherings though. 

An international online seminar, “Brazilian Tragedy: A Risk to Our Common Home?” brought religious, social and human rights leaders together with prominent experts on 4-6 May to discuss how the process of deconstructing democracy in Brazil in recent years has led the country to multiple crises.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) shared a congratulatory message with the Global Christian Forum on the forum’s upcoming third anniversary of its global gathering in Bogota, and the publication of the record of that event.

As human rights violations worsen in the Philippines, religious leaders there are urging global solidarity for their increasingly urgent quest for justice.

The film “Radio Silence,” by Juliana Fanjul, has received the Human Rights Award 2020 from the World Association for Christian Communication and SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication.

The feature-length documentary portrays government-critical journalist and radio host Carmen Arestigui. 

 

As a report on human rights abuses in the Philippines was delivered to the UN by the global group Investigate PH, churches and human rights groups reiterated their concerns over propagation of a culture that allows the abuse to happen.

The new surge in COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths has drastically increased the need for pastoral care almost everywhere. Brazil and Great Britain are two hard-hit countries, where the pandemic has brought existential questions on the table.  

Damaris, a Nigerian woman, described her experience of 2020: “We’ve gone through hell.”

Damaris and her sisters were kidnapped in March 2020 and threatened with death as their kidnappers demanded money. Her father had to sell everything and beg on the streets to meet their demands. “We are just a common people in Nigeria,” she said. “We don’t know what we did.”

The brutal killing of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, at the hands of two white security guards outside a supermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 19 November, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, has sparked outrage across the country. World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches raised their voices to condemn the killing and to express deep concern regarding systemic racial injustice in Brazil.

A webinar hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 26 November will explore “Conflict Zones and Covid-19: A call to compassion.” Speakers from Cameroon, Nigeria, South Sudan, Lebanon, Belarus and Colombia will offer their insights on how conflict exacerbates the conditions for contracting and treating COVID-19 among civilians caught in the crossfire, especially women.

In a message of solidarity to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed concern that the human rights situation in the Philippines continues to deteriorate.