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Reflecting on “the experience of the one world” within the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee which is convening in Abuja, Nigeria, from 8-14 November, WCC moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm said that the gathering brings him great hope.

“Tax justice is a matter of faith,” said Suzanne Matale. “By faith, [all] are entitled to abundant life. Ordinary people have a right to know and to participate in decision-making tables that affect our own God-given dignity.”

His Excellency Rev. Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, president of the Republic of Malawi, and First Lady Monica Chakwera and a delegation visited the Ecumenical Centre on 21 February, meeting with World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, the WCC staff leadership group and programme executives.

H.E., Most Rev. Seraphim (Kykkotis) of Zimbabwe is the metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Zimbabwe in eastern Africa, part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. He serves on the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive and central committees, and also on the WCC Climate Change Working Group.

As Jonathan Kofi Dugbartey and Janice Adukwei Allotey showed photos of clothing and accessories during a recent World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar, a casual viewer may have thought this was a high-end fashion show.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is mourning the death of Rev. Prof. Dr Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, a South African pastor and academic who was currently serving as the WCC president from Africa since 2013. She passed away on 19 May.

With great sadness, the World Council of Churches (WCC) received news of the demise of Prof. Vuyani Vellem on 4 December. A member of the WCC’s Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation, Vellem was director of the Centre for Public Theology and associate professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He also served as deputy secretary of the South Africa Council of Churches.

Rev. Malcolm Damon, ecumenical champion of justice for the economy and the Earth, and a son of South Africa, passed away on 8 September.

Damon was a founding member of the Economic Justice Network formed in 1997 to serve the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa, consisting of 12 national Christian councils in southern African nations. In 2001, he joined Economic Justice Network as its executive director. Under his leadership, the network became a leading advocate in the southern African region for a fairer global trading system, tax reform and climate justice.

Millions of churches, mosques, synagogues and temples around the world that embrace sustainability in their investments, buildings and teachings are a symbol of hope for the planet struggling with an ecological crisis, said Joyce Msuya, a Tanzanian microbiologist who is the deputy executive director for the Nairobi-based UN Environment.

“Multinational corporations have to pay their fair share of taxes or else we will have dug out all our copper and left a great hole in the ground for nothing”, stated Rev. Dr Suzanne Matale, from Zambia, during a workshop on just taxation and reparations held in Durban, South Africa, 16-20 March.

As the 4th UN Environment Assembly concluded in Nairobi, Kenya on 15 March, faith leaders at the gathering urged action beyond the resolutions, while warning that the current ecological crisis, if not urgently addressed, could grow to a catastrophe.

On the sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, top UN officials, religious leaders and environmental experts underlined the role of faith communities in tackling climate change, a phenomenon that threatens to annihilate humanity.

As bishops, women leaders and young leaders from the Anglican communion met in Hartebeespoort, South Africa, they issued a message titled “An Urgent Cry for Ecological Justice: Reclaiming the Gospel Imperative for All Creation.”

World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri offered the annual Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture on 24 April in Cape Town, South Africa.

In east Africa, some good rains in October and November 2017 have created hope for communities recovering from several months of severe drought.