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Half way through the UN climate summit in Copenhagen and after a week in which no breakthrough was achieved, ecumenical leaders have asked negotiators to be more ambitious.

As a wave of ringing bells embraced the globe, churches sent a strong message to world leaders gathered at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen: There is only one world and in order to preserve it, bold action needs to be taken now.

By Mark Beach (*)

By Mark Beach (*)

As nations are spelling out their bargaining positions for the negotiations on a new international climate deal to take place in Copenhagen next month, churches around the world are trying to ring home the message that climate protection is an ethical and spiritual issue.

Church representatives from around the world will gather in New York City 15-20 November to press three issues within the agenda of the United Nations: peoples being displaced by climate change, indigenous people's rights and Colombia's protracted internal conflict.

An international ecumenical delegation has urged stronger action against human rights abuses in Honduras at a meeting with the general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) and representatives of the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., 22-23 October.

Nearly 140 leaders from the world's churches, North and South Koreans among them, have called for the formation of an inter-Korean confederation even before complete reunification of Korea can take place. Agreement was reached at the close of a three-day meeting in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong where the Christian leaders expressed unrelenting hope for peace and reconciliation among Koreans, despite the stark realities of the ongoing division of the Korean peninsula.

Ecumenical Delegation to Meet With High-Level Officials to Promote Peace and Reconciliation

In a momentary foretaste of Korean reunification, two Korean pastors - one from the north, one from the south - bridged more than 60 years of separation in jointly presiding over a celebration of the Eucharist during a worship service commemorating more than 25 years of work toward bringing peace and reconciliation to the divided Korean peninsula. The “Tozanso Process”, which brings together Christians from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north and the Republic of Korea in the south, as well as representatives of partner churches from other nations, was initiated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1984.

In a recent meeting with a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) visiting Pyongyang, North Korean president Kim Yong-nam said a significant impetus to solving the nuclear weapons stand-off in the region would be for North Korea and the U.S. to meet “face-to-face with each other”.

Amidst the growing tensions and diplomatic negotiations among various countries within the Six Party Talks on peace and security on the Korean peninsula, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, will be making a pastoral visit to the churches in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) this week.

On the eve of the 22 September United Nations Summit on Climate Change representatives of faith communities around the world called on world leaders and on "all people of Earth to accept the reality of the common danger we face, the imperative and responsibility for immediate and decisive action and the opportunity to change."

"Being indigenous peoples is not about wearing colourful garments but about being engaged in the political struggle towards an alternative to the current, crisis-laden model of civilization", says María Chávez Quispe, an indigenous person from Bolivia who is a consultant for indigenous issues at the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Two global church organizations have congratulated the Durban Review Conference on the adoption of its outcome document, while regretting that the latter makes no mention of the plight of hundreds of millions of people affected by caste-based discrimination.

The prime minister of uranium-rich Namibia favours his country ratifying the Africa Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, a long-delayed milestone that requires action by only two more states, but with a caveat about peace.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

Governments, civil society organizations and Christian agencies have expressed their disappointment that the ministerial declaration adopted at the World Water Forum in Istanbul does not include a reconfirmation of water as a human right.

No doubt the global financial crisis is and will continue impacting negatively all regions of the world, but according to an advisory body of the World Council of Churches (WCC) it also represents an opportunity to deeply transform the international financial system for good.

Some forty-five religious, interfaith, and value-based organizations from five continents agreed to form a coalition to advance a "United Nations Decade for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding, and Cooperation for Peace." Coalition members expressed the hope that the UN Sixty-Fourth General Assembly, which will begin its deliberations in September 2009, will approve a resolution establishing such a decade from 2011-2020.