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Radical changes and tangible commitments from world leaders are needed if an equitable and sustainable global economic system is to be built, says an ecumenical delegation attending a UN conference on financing for development starting tomorrow in Qatar.

Leaders and representatives of 24 US churches gathering in Washington, D.C. next week will deliver a message to President-elect Barack Obama, outlining hopes for the new administration in leading the nation forward and working for peace with justice.

After six days of intense discussions on migration, the conflict in Sri Lanka and climate change, of common prayer and practical efforts to make the voice of the churches on these issues heard at the United Nations, the UN Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ended with good results on Friday.

At the 16-21 November United Nations Advocacy Week of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Christians from the Pacific islands have appealed for worldwide solidarity with regard to climate change, a question of life and death in their communities.

For one billion of the world population, "living with constant hunger" is "a normal state". However, there is nothing normal about that fact, which is "a result of the ways our societies have chosen to produce, share, buy and sell food".

As many of those "responsible for the current financial meltdown" meet "behind closed doors in Washington, D.C." to discuss the future of the global economy, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has challenged the legitimacy of the so-called "G20" group of nations and called for broader participation. The international financial architecture needs "a paradigm shift," says the WCC.

Straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, is the small island country of Kiribati.  The vast majority of its 33 coral atolls never exceed three meters above sea level, making Kiribati's 94,000 inhabitants vulnerable to a rare danger: their country is sinking. Â

"As Christians, we are called to stand with those who are victims of oppression, poverty or violence," Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Public Witness said in advance of the WCC's United Nations Advocacy Week, 16 to 21 November in New York.

Not only the Pacific islands and their inhabitants, but also "the Northern circumpolar areas and the people living there are already suffering from the effects of the changing environment", according to the participants of a 28-30 October seminar organized by the Council of Christian Churches in the Barents Region. Â

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged the citizens of the world's more privileged nations to insist on emission cuts, in a video message that was recently posted on the online platform youtube.

Jointly issued by the WCC and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

The recently established Action by Churches Together (ACT) International Climate Change group held its first meeting at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 18-19 September 2008.

The spiritual and moral dimension s of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.

Climate change, its causes and consequences as well as the role of churches and the worldwide ecumenical family will be at the center of a 7-14 July visit to the Pacific region by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.