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The 27 young people/participants of the WCC Eco School 2019 from 11 countries, who gathered at Chiang Mai, Thailand from 4th to 17th November 2019, jointly organized and hosted by the Christian Conference of Asia and World Student Christian Federation, discussed and deliberated on various ecological issues affecting our planet and people.

The report points out that underlying these disturbing trends are “production and consumption patterns, human population dynamics and trends, trade, technological innovations and local through global governance.”
In every single area of recommended action, churches are well-placed to make significant contributions. We have the capacity and the responsibility to act.

Food is central to life and our faith. It is a blessing and a gift of God, in the form of the abundant creation which we depend on for our sustenance. Food is also a reflection of the quality of our relationships with each other- our caring for the other and the sharing of resources and the hospitality we show each other. Food is central to our worship life, our liturgy and the Eucharist, which helps us to be one with God and with each other.

Are we in a time when the message of the threats of climate change is on its way to sink into our shared consciousness? After being active in the climate debates in the ecumenical and interreligious discussions and advocacy work with not so much of a visible impact on policies and action I am wondering if we are getting closer to the point where we should have been 20 years ago. A point that says that humanity needs to choose another way if we are going to secure a decent future for coming generations and to save ecosystems and peoples opportunities to have a good and peaceful life together.

The sixth reflection of the “Seven Weeks for Water 2019” of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network is by Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the network. Suna comes from the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church in Odisha, India. In the following reflection, Suna emphasises that "the lost, the least and the last" are at the heart of both the Bible as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. From the gospel according to Luke, Suna identifies parables by Jesus that demonstrate Jesus’s preference for vulnerable communities and challenge us to have that positive bias towards them.

The fifth reflection of the “Seven Weeks for Water 2019” of World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network is done jointly by Dr Manoj Kurian and Ms Athena Peralta, the Coordinator of WCC-Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and Programme Executive of WCC Economic and Ecological Justice programmes respectively. In the following reflection, they underline the nexus between water, food and climate change and how our irresponsible consumption pattern on one can influence the other sectors.  They further challenge us to review our footprints on water, climate change etc and encourage us to take actions this Lent for making our planet more sustainable.

"Respecting Mother Earth and caring for ecological systems, the most vulnerable communities and all future generations" is an Interfaith submission to Talanoa Dialogue 2018, at the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2-15 December 2018.

Dr. Agnes Abuom, moderator of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, offered a speech entitled “A Clarion Christian Call to Justice and Peace: Ending Global Inequality and Climate injustice” at the Justice Conference in Oslo, Norway on 9 November.

Speech of the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit at the Community of Sant'Egidio in Bologna, Italy

The recently released report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius is more than a wake-up call for all of us. It is an alarm bell of a disaster going on. Our home, the Earth, God’s gift of creation, is endangered by the unlimited extraction of natural resources that is clearly disrupting the life-giving systems of our planet.

Churches Week of Action on Food (15 - 22 October 2018)

Keynote address of Peter Prove, Director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, World Council of Churches at the 2018 Global Peace Forum on Korea, New York, 29 September 2018

Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture by WCC deputy general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri. Rodebosch United Church, Cape Town, South Africa. By Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri (24 April 2018)

The sixth reflection of the of the "Seven Weeks for Water", of World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network, is by Prof. Dr Jerónimo Granados, an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Church of Río de La Plata. The following reflection recognises the promise of living water, the water that quenches the thirst of the world for Jesus Christ. However, he underscores the importance of the clean water to run through taps of people of Latin America which is vital for a dignified life. He also draws inspiration from the “Pachamama” of the native people of this region to respect and protect our waters.

The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace reaches out to persons who are mired in the wilderness of injustice and who lack peace, as in the story of Hagar’s journey in Genesis. The story is reflected in the story of the Caribbean. Levels of inequality between women and men still exist in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. The story of Hagar unfolds God’s plans through selected agents. As the Caribbean seeks to journey toward peace and justice in the matter of social justice, human rights, and human reproductive rights, responsibilities and practices, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace can effectively play a supportive role.

These have been prepared in collaboration with churches in India, and interpret Psalm 23 from ecological, food-justice and migration perspectives.

Lecture by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit at the Ev. Akademie Hofgeismar in Germany.

The final reflection of the Lenten Campaign: Seven Weeks for Water 2017 of the Word Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) is by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri.  Dr Phiri is the deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and responsible for WCC’s work on Public Witness and Diakonia. A Malawian by nationality, Apawo Phiri was a professor of African theology, dean and head of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, and director of the Centre for Constructive Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  In this reflection she explains the concept of a ‘blue community’ and points out why the bottled water industry is an impediment to the human right to water. She then takes us through the journey of the WCC into becoming a blue community through one of its ecumenical initiatives, the EWN.