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Seven Weeks for Water 2020, week 5: "Water and Climate Change", by Dinesh Suna

The fifth reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2020 is by Dinesh Suna, coordinator of Ecumenical Water Network, World Council of Churches. He is a Lutheran and comes from India. In the following reflection, he explores the importance of “hand-washing” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while this basic facility is not available to millions of people, particularly to children. He dedicates this reflection to World Water Day which is being observed on 22 March with the theme “Water and Climate Change.”

WCC Programmes

Ecumenical Review focuses on “Global Manifestations of Racism Today”

The latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), focuses on “Global Manifestations of Racism Today,” with a set of articles that originated at a theological symposium organized in Japan in 2019 as part of the WCC’s Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

WCC supports call to divest from fossil fuel industries

The World Council of Churches is supporting a joint call for churches and faith-based organizations to divest from fossil fuel industries. The call will be formally announced on 26-28 March, coinciding with the Economy of Francesco conference in Assisi, Italy, at which prominent economists will be joined by 2,000 young people from around the world.

Father Jacques Mourad, priest held hostage by Islamic State, reflects on what he learned

Father Jacques Mourad is a monk and priest of the community of Mar Moussa in Syria. He is very active in Islamic-Christian dialogue and belongs to the diocese of Homs of the Syriac Catholic Church. In 2015, he was captured and held hostage by the Islamic State, before escaping with the help of Muslims. During Advent, Father Mourad visited the Ecumenical Centre, where he led a special midday prayer for peace in Syria and the Middle East.

Ecumenical prayer for peace in Syria

At the end of the second week of Advent, WCC staff gathered in the Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for a special midday prayer for peace in Syria and the Middle East led by Father Jack (Yaqoub) Mourad, head of the Syriac Catholic Monastery of Saint Elian in al-Qaryatayn.

Pope Francis expresses “fraternal closeness” with Waldensian Methodist

As the Waldensian Methodist Synod met in Torre Pelisse in the north of Italy, the assembled delegates received a letter from Pope Francis, who expressed warm greetings.

“I pray for each of you that you may experience the Holy Spirit in these days of encounter, prayer and reflection,” wrote Pope Francis. “Please allow me to join in your prayer that the Lord would deepen the ecumenical spirit among Christians and lead our churches into a growing communion with each other.”

Jewish-Christian relations focus of global conference in Sweden

The International Council of Christians and Jews held its annual conference in Lund, Sweden on 30 June through 3 July with the theme: “Transformations Within and Between: How Does Our New Relationship Affect Christians and Jewish Self-Understandings?”
Approximately 160 participants representing many organizations, including the World Council of Churches, came from 23 nations. They began the conference in the Lutheran Cathedral of Lund with greetings from local religious and civic leaders.

Luca Maria Negro: “Refugees dying in the sea is not an option”

Rev. Luca Maria Negro, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, has been instrumental in founding the Humanitarian Corridors programme, an ecumenical project for safe passages for migrants developed by the federation’s Mediterranean Hope team with the Comunità di Sant’Egidio in 2015. Humanitarian Corridors have since been opened in France, Belgium and Andorra for a total of nearly 3,000 arrivals in Europe.

Save lives of boat refugees on “deadliest border in the world,” urges declaration

The Protestant Church in Germany and Palermo (Italy) Mayor Leoluca Orlando have issued a joint declaration calling for a European distribution mechanism for boat refugees.

Currently there is no Europe-wide distribution mechanism to accommodate refugees rescued in the Mediterranean in the European Union. The declaration calls for a political emergency solution this summer, and urges a group of European Union member states to act as a “coalition of the willing” and develop a sustainable migration policy.