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Youth delegates to climate-change talks from churches of the Lutheran World Federation have initiated a call to fast with the poor and vulnerable who are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events. The call was joined immediately by other faith-based organizations present at the UN climate negotiations.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has called upon its worldwide member churches to join its delegation at the COP 19 climate change negotiations in Warsaw in a fast in solidarity with the poor and vulnerable disproportionately affected by extreme weather events.

The WCC held its first Youth Virtual Conference titled “Live your Faith!” on 12 October, offering young Christians from around the world an opportunity to reflect on issues of concern for their communities, including eco-justice, migration and peace.

In order to build on its work for the protection of climate refugees, the WCC joins an innovative campaign “Postcards from the Frontlines” aiming to achieve urgently needed recognition and protection for climate refugees around the world.

Celebrating water as God’s creation and reflecting on challenges faced by people having inadequate access to this life-giving resource, members of churches in Onex, Switzerland, gathered together in Geneva. Their meeting was held beside a pond called Étang des Mouilles on the rainy Sunday morning of 15 September.

In a call to celebrate Time for Creation, Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, encouraged the churches to pay attention to the “human interventions impacting the ecological balance”.

A book launched in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last month reinforced debate on the theme of eco-theology in Latin America with a direct contribution from the WCC.

A statement issued at the WCC consultation calls on churches, governments and the United Nations to ensure universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene, while placing access to water prominently on their post-2015 agendas.

The WCC general secretary called diakonia an expression of faith that “embodies the signs of God’s reign and makes it visible in all experiences of hope amidst turmoil, in actions that heal and nurture people and relationships.”

A seminar at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland gathered diverse reflections on eco-theology, care for the creation and climate change, and how to build a sustainable world. The contributors included Christian theologians and activists as well as youth.

In a talk during the German Protestant Kirchentag in Hamburg, the WCC general secretary stressed the leading role of churches worldwide in the process of establishing justice and an ecologically-friendly way of life.

At the recent World Social Forum, ecumenical voices warned about the grave consequences of extraction of natural resources and mining, which they say generate a tremendous amount of social and ecological debt.

Church representatives at a recent Oikotree Global Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa stressed the need to support peoples'€™ movements promoting justice in the economy and ecology, a concern, they say, that lies at the heart of the faith.

In Africa, trade, aid and investments from the European Union (EU), United States (US) and China have not fully addressed the roots of poverty, inequality and ecological degradation. Churches, therefore, need to engage in a “development dialogue” to support alternative economic agendas, which can help eradicate poverty, while safeguarding Africa’s natural riches.

How we understand God figures directly in how we treat our planet and its inhabitants, asserts a group of theologians in the newest issue of The Ecumenical Review.

Climate change is causing massive violations of human rights. This point was made at a side event on “human rights and climate change” during the 22nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

To inspire responses and concrete actions for water justice, the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has launched an online compilation of biblical reflections and resources on water for use during Lent.

In La Paz, an ecumenical delegation delivered to Bolivian government officials a statement on ethical principles for a new global economic system. The statement was received by Bolivian minister of the presidency Juan Ramon Quintana at the government palace on 9 January.

A letter sent Friday from the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper calls on the Canadian government to “listen carefully” to the concerns of Canada’s Indigenous leaders.

What will the world look like if we continue careening down a slide of eco-injustice? Ninth graders in South Africa have some idea. In a campaign organized by Suwi Siwila, the students pretended they were living in the future, writing a description to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.