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A “Water Justice Manifesto”—signed by 500 organizations including the World Council of Churches—was presented at the UN Water Conference on 23 March, from the General Assembly Plenary hall  podium,  at the high-level segment, by the People’s Water Forum members. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) publication highlights the lessons learnt from the project Strategic Engagement of Civil Society Networks and Faith Actors in the HIV Response in India, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and Jamaica.

A Faiths4Vaccines National Summit will be held on 26 May, featuring US medical professionals—including US surgeon general Vivek Murthy—as well as faith leaders who have been serving critical roles in their communities to support equitable vaccine distribution in the USA.

Among the massive social dislocations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps none is as plaintive as those to churches. Around the world, church gatherings, liturgies, fellowship, and service projects have been canceled or postponed or migrated online, precisely when Christian communities and those who rely on them need them most.

At an informal dialogue, faith leaders gathered with representatives from governments, civil society, academia, and the United Nations to talk about financing adaptation, and loss and damage, related to climate change.

En un diálogo informal, los líderes religiosos se reunieron con representantes de los gobiernos, de la sociedad civil, del mundo académico y de las Naciones Unidas para hablar sobre la adaptación de la financiación y sobre las pérdidas y daños relacionados con el cambio climático.

An ecumenical delegation coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Indonesia on 15-22 February, including the provinces of Papua and Papua Barat - where increasing violence and discrimination against indigenous Papuan people was recently highlighted in a joint statement by five UN human rights mandate-holders.

Una delegación ecuménica organizada por el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) visitó Indonesia del 15 al 22 de febrero. La visita incluyó las provincias de Papúa y Papúa Occidental, lugares en los que se destacó el aumento de la violencia y la discriminación contra los pueblos indígenas papúes en una declaración conjunta de cinco titulares de mandatos en materia de derechos humanos de las Naciones Unidas.

From 29 January to 1 February, 30 representatives from various faith traditions gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a workshop on “Interfaith Reflections on Just Transitions: Linking Climate and Economic Justice”. The workshop was organised by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Council for World Mission and was hosted by the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, met with church leaders and politicians in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand last week. The meeting occurred almost one year after his latest visit to the region. On request of the church leaders a meeting took place with political leaders to discuss follow-up on the Paris Agreement, peace in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula, and the challenges the region is facing.

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.

Del 17 al 23 de noviembre, el Comité Ejecutivo del CMI se reunió por primera vez en China. La visita fue organizada por el Consejo Cristiano de China y el Movimiento Patriótico de las Tres Autonomías. El Movimiento Patriótico de las Tres Autonomías es una iglesia protestante de la República Popular China, además de uno de los organismos protestantes más grandes del mundo.

“Dignity, Freedom, and Grace: Christian Perspectives on HIV, AIDS and Human Rights,” a book published earlier this year by the WCC, will be among reports discussed at a 20 September event with the theme “Keeping the Faith in Development: Gender, Religions & Heath.”

Thirty-five years into the response to HIV and AIDS, it remains a disease that not only thrives on, but exploits the lines of exclusion and inequality in society. In the Philippines, where there has been an alarming increase in people testing positive for HIV, the country’s National Council of Churches recognized that more than words were needed. While dialogue and debate were important, they needed to translate into action, given the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in Filipino society, and a faith-based and societal milieu still dominated by a sex-negative theology.