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“Water is a gift of God, a gift of creation, and it is necessary for survival,” said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, introducing through a video message a World Water Week public showcase on “Water and Faith: Acting in Partnership to achieve SDG 6” in Stockholm, Sweden.

On Thursday, 30 August, the World Council of Churches will co-organize a showcase at the World Water Week in Stockholm in partnership with Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Global Water partnership (GWP), Church of Sweden, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Swedish Institute Alexandria (SIA), where high level faith leaders and water management experts will gather to share wisdom and perspectives on one of today’s most urgent environmental issues: How to ensure access to safe drinking water resources throughout the world.

A “Water and Faith” day will be held on 30 August in Stockholm, Sweden, offering many opportunities to explore how faith-based groups can act in partnership with the public and private sectors to achieve water justice for all people.

As students gathered at the WCC Ecumenical Institute at Bossey for an interreligious summer school, they reflected on what brought them to the institute, and what knowledge and insights they will take home.

This week the World Council of Churches Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland is ringing with scriptural sharing, research, and dialogue drawing together perspectives from Judaism, Christianity and Islam as students work to complete a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Interreligious Studies.

The Church of England has voted to pull investments in its $8 billion fund from firms not on track to meet the provisions of the Paris Agreement on climate change by 2023. Members of the General Synod rejected a proposal to bring forward the deadline from 2023 to 2020.

The Ecumenical Institute Bossey, which Pope Francis visits on Thursday, 21 June, as part of his pilgrimage to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, is a workshop of ideas, where the future path toward Christian unity is being mapped out.

Gathered in prayer in the Bossey chapel on 14 June, the WCC Ecumenical Institute saw eight new students graduate with a Master of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially opened the international ecological symposium “Toward a Greener Attica: Preserving the Planet and Protecting its People” at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Rev. Prof. Dr Rudolf von Sinner, professor of Systematic Theology, Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue as well as moderator of World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Education and Formation Commission, offered a public lecture on 13 April at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva as part of the WCC’s ongoing observance of its 70th anniversary this year.

Two Norwegian world leaders met in Geneva to discuss environmental issues and open up for closer collaboration. Erik Solheim, UN Environment executive director and under-secretary-general of the United Nations visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on 10 April, where he discussed with WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit both the meaning and importance of working together on environmental issues to bring hope to the world.

An ecumenical conference in Thessaloniki, Greece held 20-22 February explored the political, religious and spiritual dimensions of the economic and refugee crisis.

The worldwide agenda for sustainable development is intended to resolve inequalities but fails to address the unjust distribution of power in the global system, former World Council of Churches general secretary Konrad Raiser told a panel in Berlin.

Through a ceremony on 26 January, the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey saw 21 students from 20 countries and 10 denominations embark on a future of ecumenical work in their respective home countries and contexts.

Leaders from more than 20 international and national associations of Christian entrepreneurs from 60 countries and diverse Christian traditions gathered at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva from 22-23 January for a conference titled, “Faith-based Entrepreneurs: Stronger Together.”

The Council of Christian Churches in France (CÉCEF) is encouraging local churches to support a recently created Green Church environmental certification label, asking that offerings made at ecumenical services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity go to help finance the initiative.

Faith groups gathered at the Ecumenical Centre on 16 January to evaluate from faith and human rights perspectives the outcomes of the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP 23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They discussed the role of faith-based organizations in the Talanoa Dialogue emerging from COP 23 and began to cooperate for effective and meaningful faith-based engagement in COP 24.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos from 24-26 January, 2018. If you are interested in more information or in arranging an interview with Dr Tveit, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

“It is our moral and ethical responsibility to take collective and immediate actions to address climate change and to safeguard life on our planet”, read the interfaith statement delivered by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the plenary of COP23 on 16 November.

An ecumenical delegation led by the World Council of Churches (WCC) met first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, in Bonn, Germany, to share concerns over rising sea levels and increasingly severe droughts and storms that are putting into question the very survival of people in the British Commonwealth of Tuvalu.