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In a pastoral letter to the faithful in his diocese, Roman Catholic Bishop Luc Bouchard of St Paul in Alberta, Canada decried that "the integrity of creation in the Athabasca Oil Sands" - the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world and the largest of three major oil sands deposits in Alberta - "is clearly being sacrificed for economic gain."

By Juan Michel (*)

For the first time, the All Africa Conference of Churches gave prominent space to the water and environmental crises at its general assembly in Maputo, Mozambique, 7-12 December .

After six days of intense discussions on migration, the conflict in Sri Lanka and climate change, of common prayer and practical efforts to make the voice of the churches on these issues heard at the United Nations, the UN Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ended with good results on Friday.

At the 16-21 November United Nations Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Christians from the Pacific islands have appealed for worldwide solidarity with regard to climate change, a question of life and death in their communities.

The spiritual and moral dimension s of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.

By Annegret Kapp (*)

"Humanity unfortunately has transgressed the Divine command for the protection of creation", said the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in his message on World Environment Day today.  "We experience the results of this neglectful and avaricious behavior today, as weak-willed spectators of the repercussions of catastrophic climactic changes."

In a wide ranging discussion at the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) the UN secretary general, H.E. Ban Ki-Moon and WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia found agreement for the two world bodies to work more closely on several global issues, particularly climate change.

The World Council of Churches central committee issued a reminder on the pressing issue of climate change this week, urging member churches and others to "Be stewards of God's creation".

The Kyoto Protocol is "an important step forward towards a just and sustainable global climate policy regime" and as such needs to be fully implemented, however "much more radical reductions [of greenhouse gas emissions] are urgently needed," the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee stated at its 25-28 September meeting in Etchmiadzin, Armenia.