In a letter to Colombian president Gustavo Petro Urrego, and to the high commissioner for peace Danilo Rueda Rodriguéz, the World Council of Churches, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and ACT Alliance congratulated the government of Colombia for the appointment of four women to the negotiation team for a peace agreement with the National Liberation Army.
Malena Lozada, from Argentina, attended the World Council of Churches Eco School in 2018. She has remained engaged in climate talks, and is now a climate scientist pursuing a PhD related to climate change.
As Brazilian artist Janine Marja Schneider pieces together the “Waterfall of Solidarity and Resistance” tapestry, she brings mixed emotions to her endeavors. On one hand, she’s inspired to bring the stories of women from around the world to life on the colorful blocks that cascade downward like liquid. On the other hand, with every stitch, she more deeply absorbs what brings these women together: it’s what they’ve survived.
From 31 May to 3 June, representatives from the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group, Working Group on Climate Change, and the Young People in the Ecumenical Movement of the World Council of Churches formed a Pilgrim Team Visit to indigenous Sami communities in the south of Norway.
As a group of three laureates of the “National Human Rights Award in Colombia” engaged in meetings with diplomats and United Nations representatives in Geneva, a tray lunch event was organized on 8 June at the Ecumenical Centre by the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance to offer the delegation the opportunity to share about the deterioration of the peace process in the country and the importance of international solidarity.
Three World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrim Team Visits, one to Italy, a second to Armenia and a third to Norway, are continuing the WCC’s accompaniment for communities in their quest for justice and peace under the theme of “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” through the lenses of post-war trauma healing, gender justice, and migration.
At the recently concluded World Social Forum in Mexico City, a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) reflected on ecological justice by addressing the nexus between water, food and climate change.
Women in Argentina have reached across more than 15,000 kilometers with a message of solidarity for women in Afghanistan. Their video puts a creative flair on the World Council of Churches Thursdays in Black campaign for a world free from rape and violence.
Church bells rang for five minutes across Norway on 22 July, it marked the 10th anniversary of the twin attacks that killed 77 Norwegians and left hundreds of others scarred for life “both in body and soul,” as Oslo Bishop Kari Veiteberg put it at the memorial service in the Oslo Cathedral.
In a 13 July letter to the United Nations Security Council, the Diálogo Intereclesial por la Paz en Colombia (DiPaz), an interchurch platform for dialogue for peace in Colombia, called on the international community to urge the Colombian government to resume the full implementation of the peace agreement and strengthen channels of dialogue to resolve societal issues.
The same week Brazil reached half a million deaths by COVID-19, my parents got the first dose of the vaccine. On my way to work, I pass through a vaccination post full of people, and through a cemetery full of grief. The past year and few months were a mix of fear, indignation and anger for me. But also a time where I saw generosity and hope bloom.
476 million indigenous people live around the world, of which 11.5% live in our Latin American region. In these years that we are going from the COVID 19 pandemic in our territories (indigenous or tribal at the Latin American level), the presence of many extractive companies, mainly uranium and lithium, has increased, land traffickers and among other monoculture companies with fires for the cultivation of oil palm, logging, putting vulnerable peoples at greater risk than what is already experienced.
Lorraine Netro, who was raised in the Gwich’in First Nation of Old Crow, Yukon (Canada), is part of an indigenous community—but she’s also a global citizen.
“Today’s Arctic peoples are important members of global society,” Netro said. “The survival of Arctic cultures and communities remains tied to the wildlife and landscape of the Arctic Refuge.”
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 the Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign begins in Brazil, World Council of Churches interim general secretary Rev. Dr Ioan Sauca shared his hope that the campaign will bring a unique opportunity to express concrete solidarity and support to the work of churches engaged in expressing Christian unity.
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.