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A resource book titled Jamaica Praying: a manual for HIV and AIDS sensitive liturgies and sermons was launched last week by the United Theological College of the West Indies. The resource aims to equip church workers to offer a sensitive response to people affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

Outcomes, disappointments, as well as encouraging signs from the United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Peoples Summit held late last year in Lima, Peru, were discussed at length by representatives of faith communities.

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.

Members and partners of the WCC are all set to promote climate justice from a faith-based perspective as United Nations climate talks begin in Lima, Peru.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, this week invited 20 of its major partners from the private sector and civil society to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The WCC general secretary represented faith based-organizations at a high-level breakfast in New York hosted by the UN agency.

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.

Working in alliance with churches is strategically important, said a UN representative at the recent assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches.

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.

Despite being a wealthy country at one time, Argentina has more recently faced recurring economic crises, persistent fiscal and current account deficits, high inflation, mounting external debt and capital flight. The major down turn in Argentina’s economy was from 1999 to 2000, and is still causing a feeling of incertitude among its citizens.

Youth engagement in eco-justice is expanding in scope and sophistication, says Marcelo Leites, Latin American and Caribbean regional secretary for the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF).

Fifteen representatives from churches, ecumenical organizations and other partners from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and the Pacific came together this week in Crete to assess the work of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on care for creation and climate justice and to strategize for the future.

By Susan Kim (*)

World Council of Churches (WCC) participants in the Rio+20 Conference have joined a broad religious coalition in rejecting the official outcome document of the United Nations-sponsored event.

On 22 June, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Global Forum on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology concluded with a strong call for action to evolve “transformative congregations” with moral courage to build an “economy of life” that focuses on er adicating poverty, challenging wealth accumulation and safeguarding ecological integrity.

“Institutionalized greed with structural consequences demands counter measures at the structural level, if we are to overcome pressing problems of poverty, socio-economic disparities and ecological destruction,” said Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

More than one hundred international participants, including representatives of churches and civil society, have gathered in Bogor, Indonesia for the Global Forum on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology. On 19 June, they spoke together about poverty eradication and the concepts of economic and ecological justice lying at the heart of Christian ethics.

"€œChurches should not shy away from discussing health issues. The more we remain in denial, the more we end up promoting a culture of silence," said Dr Sr Elizabeth Vadakekara from India, representing the Medical Mission Sisters in London.

Wealth and property shape a “false reading” of human value, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said recently at a Protestant convention in Germany.“Property and possessions have purpose in as much as they help us to live as the people God called us to be and no more,” Tveit said in a Bible study at the German Protestant Kirchentag which met in Dresden 1-5 June.

Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia, is home to more than 11,000 people, whose very existence, which at one time was tied to the ocean and its bounty, is now threatened by rising ocean water levels.