An appeal from representatives of Religions for Peace in Norway is urging the Norwegian government to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will come into force on 22 January.
The Right Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth is Bishop of Coventry, the senior leader of the Church of England in Coventry and Warwickshire in the United Kingdom. On 14 November 2020, Bishop Cocksworth, along with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York as well as more than 30 other bishops, issued a statement welcoming the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and calling on the UK Government to join it. The statement coincided with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Coventry and destruction of its cathedral.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomes and celebrates the ratification by 50 States of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which seeks for the first time to establish a comprehensive ban on the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as obligations for victim assistance and environmental remediation.
"You can look into the sky and see the Seven Sisters still today. They are in the stars reminding us to be strong. We are always looking to the future and this story is remembering."
“Peace especially attracts the Spirit of God, for peace is the mother of love and the hallmark of sanctity.” So said Alcuin of York. Although he lived and died over 1,200 years ago he remains one of the greatest Christian scholars this country has ever produced, and even though he is not so well remembered today, his influence upon the church in Europe was profound and long-lasting.
On his visit to Japan last November, Pope Francis defined nuclear weapons as a “crime”. Two crimes, actually, folded into one. He named “the dignity of human beings” and “any possible future for our common home”. The pope added a critical qualifier in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The crime is committed not only by using nuclear weapons; it is also committed by having nuclear weapons.
Last September I visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the first time as part of my sabbatical year. How does one encounter these two places that are such containers of pain, suffering and for me, as an American, complicity? To be a tourist feels wrong and I ended up contemplating the World Council of Churches (WCC) model of pilgrimages of justice and peace as a way to be in a space of suffering, and as a way to practice accompaniment, commitment and perhaps even hopefulness.
As a wide coalition of faith-based communities from around the world, we have committed to speaking
with one voice that rejects the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons pose. We reaffirm that the presence of even one nuclear weapon violates the core principles of our different faith traditions and threatens the unimaginable destruction of everything we hold dear.
On 6 August, a “Joint Interfaith Statement on the 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was released, reaffirming the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons pose.
Fifty years after the French tests in Moruroa and Fangataufa, 540 cases of people suffering from cancer are reported every year among our population of 280,000 inhabitants, and so many stillborn infants and deformed children. Isn’t that proof enough that the French nuclear tests were not as clean as the state claims?
A Declaration for the People’s Korea Peace Agreement was launched on 23 July 2020 at a global Zoom convention initiated by the National Council of Churches in Korea, along with civil organizations.
The voices of the churches in the international arena— Ranging across the globe, this vital compendium of documents covers an astonishing array of engagement by Christian churches through the World Council of Churches and its Commission of the Churches in International Affairs: war and peace, regional and national conflicts, disarmament and nuclear weapons, violence against women, economic justice, climate justice, freedom of religion, religious intolerance, ethnic and indigenous people’s struggles—the list goes on.
A Declaration for the People’s Korea Peace Agreement was launched on 23 July at a global Zoom convention initiated by the National Council of Churches in Korea, along with civil organizations.
On 7 July 2020, the 3rd anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Fiji became a State party to the treaty following the unanimous approval of the Fijian Parliament in May.
In a meeting with a format and focus dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) this week addressed vital international developments and situations.
In a meeting whose format and focus were dictated by the global pandemic, the executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) this week also addressed vital international developments and situations.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is calling for a world free from nuclear weapons, as the international community prepares to commemorate 75 years since the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Already, the WCC has published the first few in a series of blog posts highlighting different reflections and experiences from those who are calling for an end to nuclear weapons, from Japan, from the Pacific, from nuclear weapons states, and from those leading advocacy at the global level.
In July 2014, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee adopted a statement entitled "Towards a Nuclear-free World." In the same year, on 4 August, on behalf of the world's 500 million Christians, WCC Asia president Dr Chang Sang visited Japan, and delivered this statement in person to the chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, Yoshihide Suga. The churches in Japan, which experienced Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were greatly encouraged by these WCC actions.
