Recent years have witnessed a seismic shift in the global landscape of climate litigation, with youth activists taking center stage in the fight for environmental justice.
Moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development Archbishop Rev. Julio Murray Thompson, in a WCC video interview, reflects on the challenges the commission is facing, how it will build partnerships, and ways in which it will involve young people.
Jackline Makena Mutuma is a clergy with the Methodist Church in Kenya and a student at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, where her current research is related to the intersection of modern-day slavery and global warming. She was also recently elected as one of the vice moderators of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order. In a WCC interview, she reflects on the urgent issue of preventing modern slavery.
The stories that imprint and accompany us the most are not necessarily the ones spoken most eloquently or from an orator’s elaborate formulations, but every so often those emanating out of the mouths of babes.
Children who gathered prior and during the New Global Financial Pact, held 22-23 June in Paris, delivered a clear message to President Macron and world leaders: the existing colonial economic model must be replaced with one that prioritizes humanity over profits.
Seeking to join efforts with those committed to ensure a just and sustainable future for the continent, representatives from World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches in Latin America gathered at the WCC central committee in June to identify common concerns.
Burundi recently witnessed a significant event aimed at fostering inclusivity and addressing the impact of climate change on persons with disabilities. During the National Dialogue on Disability-Inclusive Climate Change Policies and Programs last week, the Friends Church in Burundi embarked on a mission to support and uplift women and girls with disabilities in Nyabihanga, Gitega Province.
Thirteen-year old Ellyanne Chlystun-Githae has a serious message for the adults in the world: “While you are worrying about whether you have enough money to retire, people my age are worried about surviving in a world that is rapidly warming.”
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.
Below, Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, World Council of Churches (WCC) director of Public Witness and Diakonia, reflects on the relevance of ecumenical diakonia and public witness today.
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.
As a severe drought triggered a humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, churches and several humanitarian organizations there urged foreign debt suspension to enable the countries to tackle the catastrophe.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) had a pivotal place at a conference organized by the Foundation Dialogue for Peace in Geneva, drawing international speakers that would gladden the organizers of any world gathering as they interlinked trying to feed and heal people and get peace during war.
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.
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.
An interfaith statement developed at Stockholm+50, “Faith Values and Reach - Contribution to Environmental Policy,” was signed by representatives of various faith-based organizations and Indigenous cultures across the world, including the World Council of Churches, and directed to the governments, UN entities, civil society, and all stakeholders of the “Stockholm+50” processes.
