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As the Season of Creation gets ready to close on 4 October, the World Council of Churches (WCC) global fellowship has new inspiration and determination to carry climate justice work forward.

A global faith-based movement, the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, has been strengthening its communication and creating country programs in an ongoing effort to inspire people, appeal to their core values, and make an ethical case for urgent and concerted action to protect rainforests.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation and World Council of Churches held a learning exchange activity in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on 28 November. The activity was attended by indigenous peoples’ organizations and support networks from the Philippines, Zambia, Peru, and Colombia.

A delegation from the Oikotree movement travelled to Colombia from 2 to 5 February. Oikotree is a faith-based network initiated by the WCC, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and Council of World Mission that seeks to promote justice in the economy and ecology.

The World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network began the 2018 edition of its annual Lenten campaign “Seven Weeks for Water” in Bogota, Colombia, on 14 February. WCC leaders, members of WCC Reference Group of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, and local churches participated in a ceremony at La Giralda, headquarters of the Colombian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network (WCC-EWN) invites you to use the season of Lent to reflect on water. Since 2008, EWN has been providing weekly theological reflections and other resources on water for the seven weeks of Lent and for World Water Day on 22 March. This year, the focus is on Latin America.

More than 30 young adults coming from different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will gather in Colombia to reflect and plan actions on eco-justice and peace building. “Young people for Eco-Justice and Peace: The challenge that we accept” will be organized by the World Student Christian Federation in Latin America and the Caribbean (WSCF – LAC), a partner of the World Council of Churches (WCC), in Barranquilla, from 15-18 August.

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.

During the 4th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, the WCC, in collaboration with the ACT Alliance and Lutheran World Federation, organized a side-event on “Faith-based organizations’ contribution to the protection of communities’ land rights: lessons learnt and good practices from Africa, Asia and Latin America” at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

“Climate changes can only be addressed in a fair and sustainable way if it is proper dynamic between the care for the environment and the need for more justice,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit at an event in Colombia. “Neither in the North nor in the South can the challenges for the globe and the one humanity be seen primarily only from one of these perspectives,” he added.

“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.

Announcement of the Rev. Milton Mejía as the new general secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) was greeted by the WCC general secretary as “an expressive gesture of care for the treasure of ecumenical witness.”

An independent commission on international tax reform initiated by a coalition of organizations including the WCC is calling for an overhaul of the global taxation system to alleviate poverty in developing nations including the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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”.