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The International Reference Group of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC, at the conclusion of its recent meeting in Geneva, urged churches and ecumenical organizations in Europe and North America to consider eliminating the use of bottled water due to its adverse impact on the environment and because it is an impediment to realizing the human right to water.

Speaking of the African Faith Leaders’ Statement on Financing for Development, issued following a side event at the 3rd United Nations Financing for Development Conference, Rev. Nicta Lubaale, general secretary of the Organization of African Instituted Churches, said, the key message from African faith communities is “respect Africa’s resources”.

At the occasion of the Islamic festival of Eid al Fitr (the end of Ramadan), the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC has extended greetings to the worldwide Muslim community in a message issued on 17 July.

“Prolonged droughts coupled with sudden floods are the face of climate change in Ethiopia,” said Endeshaw Kassa of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Kassa was speaking at a side event at the 3rd United Nations Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Canadian Christians concerned about climate change are calling for government action in response to the impact of global warming on the country’s coastlines and vast Artic region.

A statement calling for a binding agreement on climate crisis, and a call for two degrees rise in temperature, the internationally-agreed target for limiting global warming, was presented to the French President Francois Hollande by representatives of the Conference of Religious Leaders of France on 1 July at the Elysée Palace in Paris, France.

Une déclaration appelant à un accord contraignant sur la crise climatique et à la limitation à 2 °C de l’augmentation de la température – cible convenue à l’échelle internationale pour contenir le réchauffement climatique – a été remise au président François Hollande par des représentants de la Conférence des responsables de culte en France le 1er juillet au palais de l’Élysée, à Paris.

Meeting from 17 to 24 June, the newly reconstituted Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC has begun to define its principal trajectories for ecumenical study and common activity from 2015 until the next WCC Assembly in 2020.

Réunie du 17 au 24 juin, la nouvelle Commission de Foi et constitution du COE a commencé à définir ses principaux axes d’étude œcuménique et d’activités communes pour la période allant de 2015 à la prochaine Assemblée du COE, en 2020.

Bishop Mark MacDonald shared views on indigenous peoples and climate change in an interview with WCC Communications. "We are entering an era in which the public has a broader awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples," he said.

Le public commence à être bien plus conscient des droits des populations autochtones, a déclaré l’évêque Mark MacDonald, président du COE pour l’Amérique du Nord et évêque autochtone national de l’Église anglicane du Canada.

To promote strong measures against climate change, the WCC and the Geneva Interfaith Forum on Climate Change, Environment and Human Rights organized a side event to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The World Council of Churches welcomed Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si'”, released on June 18, which highlights what churches and ecumenical organizations have been doing for decades on caring for the earth and climate justice issues.

Le COE a salué la publication de l’encyclique «Laudao Si’» du pape François, qui met en lumière l’action que mènent depuis des décennies Églises et organisations œcuméniques en faveur de la Terre et de la justice climatique.