Search results

“The Amazon, the green heart of the Earth, is mourning and the life it sustains is withering,” begins a statement released by the World Council of Churches Executive Committee as it met in Amman, Jordan from 17-23 November.

Some 40 participants, coming mainly from Latin American countries, attended a consultation promoted by the WCC entitled “Together Towards Life: Mission in the 21st Century”, from 30 April – 4 May, in Rosario, Argentina.

“Faith communities, in almost all humanitarian contexts, are the key sources of social capital for life-saving, transformation and hope”, says Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, in a 16 Feb. interview given shortly after his nomination as the new general secretary of ACT Alliance, a partner organization of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Statelessness robs individuals of their identity and their most fundamental human rights, acknowledged a webinar on Global Action Plan to End Statelessness on 4 November, organized by the WCC to assess the work achieved since the launch of the UNHCR's #IBelong Campaign to end statelessness.

Roman Catholic and WCC representatives are forging new ways of working together on today’s most pressing issues.

As many in the world observed and cheered the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, church leaders spoke out in support of the Olympic refugee team and the place of public honor it offered for refugees competing in the games.

Youth are not the future leaders of tomorrow. They are the leaders of today, as they fearlessly lead efforts for justice and peace in their societies.

“An ongoing process of learning human rights as a way of life and as relevant to peoples’ daily lives, for women and men to participate in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will create a political culture of human rights that will enrich all cultures and religions to create a new future for humanity”, said Shulamith Koenig, founder of People's Movement for Human Rights Learning (PDHRE), during a brainstorming event on Human Rights and the SDGs, held in New York, on 12 May. “That’s something Nelson Mandela already called for”, added Koenig.

On the world scale of countries with plentiful water, Brazil comes out in the top league. It has 12 percent of the world’s fresh water supplies. Yet Magali do Nascimento Cunha does not see her country scoring so well when it comes to water and sanitation distribution.

When Fernando Enns thinks of water in a German context, he is reminded of thousands and thousands of refugees who have come to the country fleeing the conflict in Syria.

In an age of religious pluralism and of religious justification of all manner of atrocities, how do religious communities contribute authentically to the public good?

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.

A worship service on 30 August at the Pentecostal Cathedral of Curico, Chile, featured participation from the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and the WCC president for Latin America and the Caribbean Rev. Gloria Ulloa. Christian unity and ecumenical aspirations remained in focus at the service attended by more than 1,300 people.

“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.

“From the very beginning, women in the ecumenical movement have been raising the question of who is missing around the table and why,” said Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, speaking at the Latin American Congress on Gender and Religion.

Strengthening their common indigenous identity and involvement in church life, young leaders from the Sami community of the Church of Sweden, a member church of the WCC, met recently with indigenous counterparts in Brazil.

The vision of Christian unity accompanied by respect for diversity has inspired this year’s prayer materials produced in Brazil for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.