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By George Arende (*)

In a statement read on 9 December to government members from around the world at the United Nations climate summit in Durban, South Africa, the World Council of Churches (WCC) reaffirmed the need for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty to effectively address climate change effects on vulnerable communities.

Around 214 million people in the world are on the move, seeking livelihood and security outside their home countries. To address this global phenomenon of multi-directional migration, and respond to the political, economic, ethical and ecclesiological challenges it poses, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is organizing a regional conference in Lebanon from 5-7 December.

The first draft of a new mission statement for the World Council of Churches (WCC) was at the centre of a 5-day meeting recently held by the 25-member Commission for World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) on the campus of the University of Ghana near Accra.

The world has changed since 1958. In that year members of the International Missionary Council met in Achimota, Ghana and proposed to move their operation into the WCC, then one decade old.

“This is the only home we have,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu referring to the crucial significance of our planet and its survival. He was speaking in an interfaith rally in Durban, urging the United Nations conference on climate change (COP17) to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding treaty to address climate change effectively.

While staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and sister organizations such as the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are preparing for the COP17 meeting for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa next week, the ecumenical community in Brazil is starting to think about 2012 when the UN conference Rio+20 will assess the outcomes of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

Considering climate change a “moral and spiritual crisis”, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, calls the COP17 United Nations conference on climate change a “last opportunity for the international community to be responsible in addressing climate change” and urges positive outcomes from the event.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada was the site of a consultation on poverty, wealth and ecology that has issued a series of calls to action and reflection in a time of global financial crisis, environmental threat, and resistance to the ways of Wall Street and its allied economic structures. Representatives of North American churches urged their ecumenical and interfaith partners

With environmental disasters impacting community lives in acute ways around the globe, churches from India and other countries gathered in Chennai, last week to reaffirm their commitment to climate justice.Â

From Durban in South Africa to Busan in South Korea, water must be high on the agenda of international summits, conferences and church assemblies, according to participants in the Ecumenical Water Network Forum.

Wilhelm Pierola Iturralde is the president of the Bolivian Association "Joining Hands for Life", an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Programme which works closely with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to address water problems in Bolivia. Iturralde was one of the participants at the Global Forum of the Ecumenical Water Network in Kenya, Nairobi.

Rev. Canon Dr Ezekiel Olusegun Babatunde, a theologian from Immanuel College of Theology and director of the Institute of Church and Society of the Christian Council of Nigeria speaks about the attempts to provide clean and safe drinking water to communities seeking partnership with the government in Nigeria.

Member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Canada join hands with faith leaders, politicians and civil society actors to stress a

Susan Lea Smith is a water justice activist and an environmental and natural resources law professor at the Willamette University in the United States. She shares her concern over the water crisis and the unjust distribution of water in the world, as well as efforts made to address this issue from a rights based perspective in her country.

David Weaver, senior advisor for Global Advocacy at Church World Service in the United States shares about the Mwingi Water for All Project, and how it is attempting to contribute to water justice. He was participating in a Global Forum of the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which took place from 25-27 October in Nairobi, Kenya.

"Greed and Global Economics" is the theme of the latest issue of Ecumenical Review. In view of the current economic, financial and ecological crises, theologians, economists, an ethicist, and an historian provide an analysis of the issues of economic justice and structural greed.

Dr Rommel F. Linatoc reflected on the issues of water and sanitation from an ecumenical perspective in the Philippines, speaking in an interview at the Global Forum of the Ecumenical Water Network. The theme of the forum, which took place from 25-27 October in Nairobi, Kenya, was "Like a tree planted by the water".

On 28 September, the Tuvalu government declared Tuvalu to be in a state of emergency due to water shortage - the result of a five-month drought in the Pacific Island nation.