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During a visit with Pope Francis in Rome on 23 March, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation and the Roman Catholic Church committed to walking, praying. and working together for justice, reconciliation, and unity.

In the lead-up to the UN climate change conference (COP26), to be held 1-12 November in Scotland, churches are strengthening their collective calls for climate action and justice.

At the G20 Interfaith Forum, which took place 12-14 September in Bologna, Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, spoke on religious commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those focusing on children, hunger, water and sanitation.

An ecumenical delegation composed of representatives from the Conference of European Churches and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of the European Union met in Helsinki on 12 July with Pekka Haavisto, Finnish minister of Foreign Affairs, to exchange on the priorities of the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council.

Pilgrims coming from Germany, Italy and Norway ended their journeys for climate justice on 7 December upon arrival at the St Stephen’s Church in Katowice, Poland, where the United Nations (UN) climate conference is underway. They were warmly welcomed by the delegations of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) that are attending the 24th Conference of Parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24).

Before the Community of Sant'Egidio in Bologna, Italy, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit spoke on “Poverty and Inequality in a Time of Climate Change.”

WCC News spoke to Rev. Henrik Grape, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Working Group on Climate Justice. He was on his way home after attending an ecumenical gathering in Assisi.

The First Ecumenical Prayer for Creation will take place 31 August and 1 September in Assisi, Italy, the city of Francis. The two-day event is the latest sign of momentum for environmental protection growing among leaders of Christian denominations.

In a keynote speech during the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I termed their purpose “a fresh deliberation on the fate of the earth.”

A conference organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland under the theme “Just Peace with Earth” was offered in conjunction with the Arctic Assembly, the largest annual international gathering focused on the future of the Arctic held Oct. 13-15.

Not nearly enough is being done to save the lives of the 20 million people who face famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Among them are 1.4 million children, who are at imminent risk of death unless aid reaches them immediately.

At a 27 January conference in Rome, Rev. Henrik Grape, coordinator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Working Group on Climate Change, spoke about how to transform our world to sustainability and, at the same time, fight poverty and hunger without destroying the environment.

Receiving the news that Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson as president of the newly created dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the WCC expressed expectation to cooperation with the new structure, as it relates to several dimensions of work and cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Journeying from urban centres and small Pacific islands, mountain ranges and rural towns, more than 170 Indigenous people gathered this week at the mouth of the river that flows from traditional Sami lands. Their conference, “Reconciliation Processes and Indigenous Peoples: Truth, Healing and Transformation,” brought together representatives of more than two dozen Indigenous societies in connection with the WCC Central Committee meetings in Trondheim, Norway.

More than 80 people from 23 European countries travelled to Helsinki for the 11th Assembly of the European Christian Environmental Network.

“Church leaders and other leaders of faith communities played a vital role in Paris,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in an interview during the week following the COP21 UN conference on climate change.

In a meditation at the Saint Egidio evening prayer in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome on 14 December, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit celebrated love and hope this Advent season, particularly in the context of the plight of thousands of refugees and varied reactions to the climate talks in Paris.