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Witnessing the mighty river flow

What an incredible time to be living in! While skepticism and eco-anxiety tend to be the results we most see nowadays as we grow aware of the dimensions of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity and the socio-environmental crisis, for me I can't help but feel the daring and stubborn Christian hope as I grow increasingly committed to ecumenical care for creation. 

UN water summit: how we can make a difference

It is the first UN conference on water in almost 50 years. Taking place in New York from 22-24 March 2023, the “UN 2023 Water Conference” will be a key opportunity to influence and hopefully re-shape the global water discussion. Church and civil society activists are urging affected people, human rights defenders, social movements, and concerned leaders to raise their voices.

EWN members stand in solidarity with water and land defenders

Berta Caceres was a well-known land rights defender who led a battle against a large dam on ancestral lands in Honduras. She was shot to death at her home in 2016. Recently the former president of the internationally financed dam company was found guilty over the assassination. Members of the WCC-Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) are worried that violence against activists who are taking a stand against the overexploitation of natural resources, like land and water, is on the rise. Unlike the murder of Berta Caceres, most attacks and killings go unpunished.

Indigenous peoples and the pandemic in the land of inequalities

476 million indigenous people live around the world, of which 11.5% live in our Latin American region. In these years that we are going from the COVID 19 pandemic in our territories (indigenous or tribal at the Latin American level), the presence of many extractive companies, mainly uranium and lithium, has increased, land traffickers and among other monoculture companies with fires for the cultivation of oil palm, logging, putting vulnerable peoples at greater risk than what is already experienced.

Amazon’s grave risks exacerbated by agri-plundering, proselytizing

God’s creation groans in the Amazon forest, a sacred space for 34 million people suffering from the growth of inequality, land invasion, extractivism, relaxation of environmental laws, criminalization and murder of its defenders, and arson orchestrated by agribusiness—all of it made worse by proselytizing.

The Ecumenical International Youth Day| Transforming Education

12 August 2019

This year, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), in partnership with the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), will observe together the International Youth Day (IYD) with the theme: “Transforming Education.” Youth are the future of the church, and they are great advocates for Christian unity. The WCC wants to empower young Christians to liven up the ecumenical movement.

The Ecumenical Centre

Interfaith Rainforest Initiative expands

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.

Learning exchange focuses on human rights among indigenous people

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.

Voices from Colombia: “What if we have no land to till?”

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.

2018 Lenten campaign “Seven Weeks for Water” begins in Colombia

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.