“We all sin against the Holy Spirit if we ignore climate change”, said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, during the opening day of the 24th Pentecostal World Conference, in São Paulo, Brazil, on 7 September. “We have to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is the life-giver, active in creation from the very beginning till today. The Holy Spirit sustain us and all creatures every day”, he said.
Interview with the WCC general secretary, who is currently in Brasilia, about violence committed in the name of religion, human rights and climate justice in Brazil.
“Join the pilgrimage of justice and peace! Stand up for the creation that is threatened, for justice and peace, so that people may gain hope so that life will flourish. The most severe threat to basic human rights here in the next decades will be the dramatic effects of climate change. This is what eco-justice means.” This was a message the WCC general secretary conveyed at a public event of the Argentina Chancellery.
To strengthen relationships and support churches in Latin America in their struggles for justice and peace, a pilgrimage of church leaders organized by the WCC will visit Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia from 24 August to 7 September.
Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, the WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society, called on the movement of Christian students to reclaim its radical transforming nature towards a “pilgrimage of gender justice”.
Climate justice has been the focal point of the WCC advocacy strategy at 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which concluded on 12 December in Lima, Peru.
Indigenous peoples have a role to play in the struggle against climate change, indigenous faith leaders said during a panel at the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.
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.
