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As climate change induced floods terrorize communities in East Africa, clerics and officials here fear that nature was hitting back.

Floods have struck Kenya and Tanzania, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction, and displacement. Floods are most intense in some of the same areas previously struck by a lengthy drought described by the UN as the worst in four decades.

A workshop at the World Council of Churches (WCC) has highlighted the right to health and dignified access to it, as well as the faith sector's engagement with migrants and refugees for health and HIV services in fighting stigma and discrimination.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, who, in a 1 March statement, condemned an attack against civilians that occurred while residents of Gaza gathered for food aid.

A hybrid event on 8 December will offer insights from global experts on the topic “Weaponizing Women in War.”

The World Council of Churches (WCC) stands in solidarity with the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem as they condemn Israeli airstrikes that exploded at the Orthodox Church compound of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza on 19 October. 

Christian leaders in North Africa are expressing their grief, as the powerful Mediterranean Cyclone Daniel killed thousands of people in the province of Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.

Observing the UN International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May, the World Council of Churches (WCC) co-organized a hybrid conference on the role of religion and civil societies in biodiversity protection.

Major global faith-based organizations are responding to the G7 meeting in Hiroshima by expressing dismay that heads of state have failed to take steps to phase out fossil fuels and fund climate-related loss and damage. The groups are renewing their calls for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.  

A global call for prayers and support for the Democratic Republic of Congo has amplified as floods and landslides left hundreds of people dead in South Kivu, a province in the east of the country.

Church leaders in Rwanda are mourning the death of 130 people after massive floods struck several districts in the tiny East African country.

A delegation from the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance is visiting Türkiye this week, expressing solidarity and support for churches on the ground responding to grave needs in the wake of the 6 February earthquake.

Almost two weeks have passed since an earthquake that hit northern Syria and Turkey on 6 February, killing over 41,000 people. The disaster also caused thousands of buildings to collapse. In various cities such as Aleppo, Hama, and Lattakia, over 115 schools were destroyed.

Faith-based and humanitarian groups across the world were setting in motion appeals for aid and prayers as response expands in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on 6 February.

Offering a churches’ perspective during a dialogue on humanitarian aid on 10 June, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca spoke on the faith and spiritual foundations for helping one another.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, convening via videoconference from 30 May to 2 June, continued the work of planning for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe even while the members mourned the loss of longtime ecumenical luminary Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima.

As the war rages in Ukraine, its impacts on food security are being felt in Africa, where millions are confronting climate change emergencies, conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hosting refugees, providing food, helping in hospitals, and ringing church bells as a warning when shelling starts—these are some of the many ways churches are responding in Ukraine and bordering countries as the war continues. More than two million people have poured out of Ukraine, and estimates from relief groups show that 18 million people—a third of the country’s population—will need humanitarian assistance.

Churches from the Pacific Islands and across the world continued to voice their prayers of support and care as Tonga copes with the aftermath of the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano on 14 January, which triggered 15-metre tsunami waves that hit the archipelago.

World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca sent letters to Ethiopian prime minister Dr Abiy Ahmed Ali as well as to WCC member churches in Ethiopia expressing serious concern over alarming reports of conflict, massacres and other human rights abuses, particularly in the Tigray and Beninshangul-Gumuz regions, over the last months.