The World Council of Churches (WCC) joined Caritas Internationalis, ACT Alliance, World Evangelical Alliance, and Lutheran World Federation in signing a joint letter to USAID administrator Samantha Power expressing concern over the suspension of food aid in Ethiopia.
After a years-long battle against proposed water-related legislation in Nigeria that had high potential for privatizing water, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network in Nigeria celebrated the defeat of the proposed law, and pledged to continue to protect water as a human right.
Becoming better stewards of Creation by killing off your church lawn? It sounds odd, but it is exactly what the Community United Church of Christ (UCC) in Fresno, USA, did. Facing increasing drought and water scarcity in their home state California, the congregation embarked on a project to drastically reduce their water use. Thanks to the massive support of volunteers, an entirely new, water-wise landscape was created that offers a lot to discover.
Following three years of severe drought, in 2018 the City of Cape Town faced an unprecedented water crisis, known as “Day Zero.” Severe water restrictions were introduced to avoid Day Zero, the day in which the city would run out of water.
A “Water Justice Manifesto”—signed by 500 organizations including the World Council of Churches—was presented at the UN Water Conference on 23 March, from the General Assembly Plenary hall podium, at the high-level segment, by the People’s Water Forum members.
We mark 4 March as World Obesity Day. Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Obesity has more than tripled since 1975, and more than 1 billion people are obese in the world today.
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.
In drought-stricken regions in eastern Africa, churches and church congregations continue to pray for rain, as the weather conditions leave millions of people without food, water and pasture for their animals.
As the war in Ukraine triggers an unexpected rise in food and commodity prices in African markets, church leaders are reaching out to communities struggling with food insecurity and shortages.
Applications are open for the fifth edition of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Eco-School on Water, Food and Climate Justice, to be held 24 April-1 May 2022 in the North America region. Convening in-person at the Stony Point Center in New York, the event is open to young people under 30 years of age from the North America region only.
I live in western Oregon, part of the Pacific Northwest long regarded as a verdant paradise, courtesy of rains and snowfall that can exceed 100 inches each year. The snowfall in the mountains sustains our rivers through the dry summer. But our climate has been profoundly disrupted. Where I live, summers are far drier and hot. But just to the south of us, this climate change has caused a drought worse than any drought in the past 1200 years. Scientists call it a “mega-drought,” a severe drought affecting massive areas of the western United States for more than two decades.
As many communities worldwide battle to get food to the table, a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar titled ‘Racism, Land and Food' highlighted the intersections of food, land, and racial injustices on food sovereignty over generations of dispossessed groups.
Whether people have access to a safe and clean toilet has wide-reaching consequences for their dignity, health, access to education, and gender equality. Churches around the world are therefore acting as messengers, implementers, advocators, and guardians to promote better sanitation and hygiene. There are many practical and encouraging examples. One is the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew (SsAM) in Wilmington (Delaware) in the USA, which has a “community bathroom” that people from the homeless community can use.
In many parts of Ethiopia, the forests surrounding churches and monasteries are among the last remaining in the country. They are severely threatened as people cut trees to obtain firewood. The church fights for the preservation of the forests by making local communities more aware of the link between the forests and water availability and by helping them to find alternative livelihoods for themselves and their families.
As tension grows in the long-running regional dispute over a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s main tributaries, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary, Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca appealed to all WCC member churches in Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and around the world to pray for a peaceful solution to the problem.
A World Council of Churches Pilgrim Team will be visiting indigenous communities on Standing Rock, particularly along the shore of the Missouri River (Lake Oahe), with portions of visits open to the public online on 25-28 May.
This Lakota chant rang out anew as the Youth Council from the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Nations gathered with elders, tribal leaders and other water protectors for a springtime rally. Religious leaders continued to stand with them in solidarity for water justice.
The Institute for Church and Society in Nigeria is raising awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water globally by participating in the World Council of Churches' Seven Weeks for Water Lenten campaign.
Anglican bishops across the world have signed a petition calling for an immediate halt to oil drilling in the Kavango Basin, Namibia, by Canadian Company ReConAfrica.
African Church leaders are highlighting the need to tame the continent’s persistent post-harvest losses, as organizations point at rising food insecurity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
