"Water should be for everybody, because it is the blood of Mother Earth." These were the words of Peruvian Congresswoman MarÃa Sumire during her speech at the conference on "Water for Life and Creation", held in Lima, Peru, 23-25 November.
An international ecumenical team that visited Honduras on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) has encouraged the churches in Honduras to "accompany the people in their search for peace with justice and the re-establishment of democracy".
Speaking on behalf of the World Council of Churches as well as indigenous church representatives from the Americas, Asia and Australia, William Chela presented a declaration at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues calling for recognition of the right to life, not only for people, but for Mother Earth, too.
Having contributed to the work of WSF by focusing on financial crisis and ecological issues, the WCC availed a good opportunity for the youth and representative of its member churches to be engaged in the social movement on one hand and ecumenically interact through sharing and experience exchange on the other hand.
Representing the experiences, perspectives and visions of different excluded groups, a select group of 25 theologians from many parts of the world gathered in La Paz, Bolivia during May 2007, perhaps for the first time, to articulate their visions of the world and the church. Their attempt was to identify the possible thematic directions for the new programme
The newly-elected moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee speaks in this interview about the beauty of the ecumenical vision and the enthusiasm it engenders, the scandal of divisions between Christians, and his dream of churches which allow themselves to be renewed so as to experience the unity of the Christian family.