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As organizations worldwide intensify their work on issues of climate justice, and the clock is ticking for new climate commitments to take shape, members of the WCC Working Group on Climate Change have gathered for a four-day meeting to strategize for effective climate justice action and for strong participation of faith-based initiatives at COP21.

Christians need a "spirituality of resistance" to face oppression, violence and experiences of defeat, the WCC general secretary said in an address at Germany’s biggest Protestant gathering.

Humanity cannot ignore its responsibility for creation, the WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has stated in Stuttgart during the German Protestant Kirchentag.

An independent commission on international tax reform initiated by a coalition of organizations including the WCC is calling for an overhaul of the global taxation system to alleviate poverty in developing nations including the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Students who visit the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva are often from theological or similarly Bible-related sections of educational institutions, but not always. This year a group of secular students from a state university in the United States arrived at the WCC to tap into work related to its health and healing programme.

Global health and religious leaders meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva have noted the essential role faith-based organizations play in providing health services.In a consultation entitled: “The future of faith-based health care provision”, participants related some of their experiences in responding to the global Ebola crisis.

”Truly, I am in the household of God,” began WCC associate general secretary for public witness and diakonia Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri in her keynote speech today at the 14th Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, and Dr Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, discussed possible collaborative actions to end extreme poverty during a meeting in Washington, D.C., on 4 May.

“The increased interest of corporate organizations in the World Water Forum has a tendency to discourage civil society’s participation in addressing the water crisis,” said Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC upon his return from the 7th World Water Forum, which concluded on 17 April in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea.

Two new interactive websites have been launched by the WCC in order to promote strong engagement of churches with the vision of a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”.

A message of achieving human dignity, and the right to hope, in a world threatened by climate change was proclaimed on 28 April by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a meeting convened on climate change by the Vatican.

The 2014 Annual Review of the World Council of Churches, now published and posted online, reports on the 2014 activities and projects of the council.

As part of churches’ on-going struggles for climate justice, the campaign Act Now for Climate Justice was launched at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on Earth Day.

The WCC has joined over 30 leaders from major world religions and heads of global faith-based organizations today in launching a call to action to end extreme poverty by 2030, a goal shared with the World Bank Group.

The increasingly influential role of the financial sector, its impact on communities and their struggles toward a just financial system remained the focus of discussions in the workshops organized by the churches at the World Social Forum.

Anglican and Reformed member churches of the WCC have taken significant new actions toward climate justice.

The social and ecological cost of expanding mineral exploration and extraction was highlighted by churches at the World Social Forum.

Ahead of World Water Day on 22 March, a number of Christian organizations are reflecting on the significance of water – a scarce resource threatened and denied to millions around the world.

A coalition of civil society and labour groups has launched an Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation in response to rising inequality and mounting public anger over corporate tax cheats. Among the organizations responsible for the establishment of the Commission is the WCC.

In a high level panel on Climate Change and Human Rights held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that despite all negative conditions “we have the right to hope” – not as a matter of passive waiting but as an active process towards justice and peace, in which human rights should play a key role.