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Two papers—“Cultivate and Care: An Ecumenical Theology of Justice for and within Creation” and “Love and Witness: Proclaiming the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ in a Religiously Plural World,” from the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission were highlighted during a webinar on 18 February.

Amid growing concerns over runaway corruption and public debt in Africa, the All Africa Conference of Churches on 21 September launched a policy brief on the challenges, saying the two were now inseparable in the continent.

As the world grapples with the spread of the new coronavirus, churches are finding ways to continue their traditions, but now by virtual means. On the coming Sabbath, churches around the world will engage in prayer, not publicly – as the church moves out of big public buildings – but inside the private spaces of homes.

People pray daily for an end to the coronavirus-COVID-19 that is gripping the world, turning human interaction into a virtual affair and upending lives everywhere during a struggle against a silent enemy about which little is known.

As a mass quarantine continued in Wuhan and surrounding provinces in China, church leaders from around the world called for accurate information and education, as well as a sense of solidarity related to the coronavirus outbreak.

Bridging the gap between faith and investments with cooperation between different groups was the focus of recent a two-day conference in Geneva. It was a rare meeting of the likes of asset managers and clergy, and the solution at the heart of success was how to collaborate for success based on Christian principles.

How to spiritually strengthen, to live faith and values in daily professional decisions may not be in the human resources manuals of 21st-century companies, but if they were, many pitfalls could be dodged.

Leaders from more than 20 international and national associations of Christian entrepreneurs from 60 countries and diverse Christian traditions gathered at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva from 22-23 January for a conference titled, “Faith-based Entrepreneurs: Stronger Together.”

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

Andrea Müller-Frank works as the Right to Food officer at the Policy Department of the German Bread for the World. Since December 2016 she has been co-chair of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network (EWN), which fights for water justice worldwide.

On 17-23 November, the Executive Committee of the WCC met for the first time ever in China. The visit was hosted by the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is a Protestant church in the People's Republic of China, as well as one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world.

While meeting in Nanjing and Shanghai, China, from 17-23 November, the WCC Executive Committee issued a statement on climate justice that reiterates the urgent concerns of churches in relation to climate change, and calls on all states to fulfill the commitments of the Paris Agreement.

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.

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.

Jim Hodgson is a journalist with extensive experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2000, Hodgson has worked with the United Church of Canada’s Caribbean and Latin America desk, most recently as programme coordinator for South America and the Caribbean.

The Cancun Agreement, adopted by the vast majority of parties at the United Nations climate change conference (COP16) in the early morning hours of 11 December, gives guarded hope to churches and civil society groups who had called for decisive action by the world's governments. In an improvement on the process that led to the much-criticized Copenhagen Accord last year, the president of the conference managed to keep the climate negotiations in the multilateral track and make some, although insufficient, steps forward.

While negotiations at a key UN climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, seem trapped in a "vicious circle", ecumenical representatives struggle alongside civil society organizations to bring about a paradigm change.