WCC news: African churches join eco-justice groups urging action on climate commitments

Faith leaders, faith-based organizations, and climate actors in Africa are demanding urgent implementation of existing climate commitments ahead of the 32nd Conference of the Parties (COP32) in November 2027 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Climate activists gathered to demand climate justice during the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27). Photo: © Valter Hugo Muniz/WCC 17 September 2026 In a new campaign titled “Africa Can’t Wait: Interfaith Voice for Just Climate,” faith communities said they were delivering climate action in the areas of adaptation, resilience, renewable energy, and clear cooking, restoration, and nature-based solutions. But droughts, floods, displacement, and loss and damage still devastated their communities, despite the interventions. Leading the campaign are, among others, ACT Alliance; GreenFaith Africa; All Africa Conference of Churches; Laudato Si’ Movement, a global Catholic environmental movement of over 900 organizations; Norwegian Church Aid Advocacy Programme for Africa; and Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-church Aid Commission.   Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of the ACT Alliance, said faith networks across Africa were not waiting for countries to turn climate commitments into action, but were supporting community adaption, building resilience, and implementing practical climate solutions through grants and local partnerships. “This gives us something powerful to bring to the global climate conversation: evidence of what just implementation can look like in practice, when communities are at the centre of designing and delivering solutions,” said de Faria in a news statement on 8 September. “For too long, much of this work has happened within individual faith networks, often without the opportunity to be seen collectively or connected to the wider climate policy debate.” Many of the solutions to Africa’s urgent climate crisis lay with African communities, said Guro Almas, programme director, Norwegian Church Aid Advocacy Programme Africa, and the communities now demand urgent action to finance African solutions and are no longer accepting empty promises or delays in implementing lifesaving commitments. “Through the Africa Can’t Wait campaign, Norwegian Church Aid and partners will pave the way for African faith leaders, youth, and communities to effectively demand justice, showcase their solutions, and influence global climate politics,” he said. According to Lorna Gold, executive director, Laudato Si’ Movement, Africa cannot keep paying the price for commitments that remain on paper. “For us as people of faith, climate action is not only about targets or negotiations. It is about protecting life, defending human dignity, and caring for our common home,” she said. Dr Tinashe Gumbo, All Africa Conference of Churches programme executive for ecological justice, welcomed the campaign as critical for faith actors in Africa, which has received several pledges from developed countries with little or no movement in terms of implementation. “We need to go beyond mere talk and pledges. Our people are dying daily because of droughts, floods, landslides, and other disasters. Thus, we welcome this campaign that will mobilize faith actors to apply more pressure on those responsible to help the situation,” said Gumbo. Africa cannot keep being invited to the table only to explain the damage climate change is doing to our people, said Dr Pius Oko, regional program manager, GreenFaith Africa. “We must be at the table to shape the decisions, the finance and the solutions,” said Oko. Care for creation and climate justice Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action   See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC news: Webinar asks what churches owe older people in an ageing world

Governments signed the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030), a ten-year promise to act on growing old. On 16 September, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing asked where churches belong inside it, opening an online webinar that Dr Gisela Schneider said set European and African experience beside that of India and Hong Kong. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth Pictures 18 September 2026 Rev. Dr Fr Stavros Kofinas, moderator of the commission, said the churches’ first task is to make the change visible. “Our mission as churches is to bring these developments to the forefront so that people can become aware of them,” he said. Old age, he argued, is shaped by five pressures: digital technology, anxiety, anger, apathy, and an adolescence that stretches into adult life. Prof. Arvind Kasturi, professor of community health at St John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, set out five obstacles that stand between an older person and the care they need: access, awareness, affordability, the absence of trained health workers, and accountability. In India, the UN Population Fund counted about 149 million people aged 60 and over in 2022, a share it expects to pass 20 percent by 2050. “For an older person, it’s not enough to have an accessible health center. It’s also a question of who’s taking me there . . .” he said. Josephine Lee, chief executive officer of St James’ Settlement, the social service agency of the Anglican church in Hong Kong, described services from fitness coaching by younger retirees to end-of-life care at home. One in four people in Hong Kong is now aged 65 or over. She asked churches to stop sorting people by age. “Why can’t we have a Sunday school for the elderly and the young together . . .” she said. Schneider, who co-chairs the Commission’s Working Group on Access and Health Systems, said churches should argue with governments over who pays. “It makes us aware that health financing cannot start at the end of life,” she said. Risk sharing, she added, “has to go across generations, and it cannot be left to private insurances.” Webinar will explore “Care of the Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities in an Ageing World”,  WCC Health and Healing programme #WCC Webinar: “Care of the Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities in an Ageing World” See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC News: Bishop emeritus Dr Jonas Jonson speaks on “Just Peace and the Vocation of the Church”

Bishop emeritus Dr Jonas Jonson, during a keynote address at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Seoul, Republic of Korea, spoke on “Just Peace and the Vocation of the Church.” He began by positing that, even in apocalyptic times, believers are ceaselessly called to plant in faith what may blossom and bear fruit in an unknown future.   Bishop emeritus Dr Jonas Jonson delivering a keynote address “Just Peace and the Vocation of the Church” at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 9-13 September 2026. Photo: NCCK 17 September 2026 “We convene amid compounding climate change and full-scale wars, fueled by militarization and the rapid proliferation of lethal autonomous weapons,” he said. “We witness rising nationalism, democratic backsliding, inter-religious tensions, and mass migration, alongside attacks on underfunded and weakened global institutions.” He spoke on how the church is called to witness to and practice a peace rooted in justice in today’s world.  “Regrettably, Christianity – like other world religions – has re-emerged as an active and potent force also serving destructive political interests,” said Jonson. “The Russian president has strategically weaponized the Russian Orthodox Church to justify his full-scale war in Ukraine.” Jonson also noted that US president Donald Trump constantly invokes rightwing Christian support. “There is a growing misuse of religious language and theological authority to sanctify armed aggression and war, to dehumanize adversaries, and to encourage religious nationalism and extremism,” said Jonson. “A significant resistance to the political misuse of faith is arising from within the churches.” He urged churches to raise their voices to protest against any appropriation and politicization of faith. “An authentic Christian message of peace, loving one's neighbor, caring for creation, and welcoming the stranger today is heard as radically subversive,” he said. “That is precisely what makes it so urgently needed in the world.” Bishop emeritus Dr Jonas Jonson delivering a keynote address “Just Peace and the Vocation of the Church” at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 9-13 September 2026. Photo: NCCK Jonson reflected that the rules-based world order that originated after World War II is shifting toward a fragmented, multipolar system. “At present, only 26 countries out of 167 are rated as full democracies,” he said. “More than half of the world’s total population live in authoritarian dictatorships which control media and suppress political opposition.” Idealistic internationalism is overshadowed by self-absorbed nationalism, Jonson noted. “During World War I, churches learned that the world was too strong for a divided church,” he said. “Therefore, church leaders decided to do whatever possible to strengthen Christian identity, promote church unity, build alliances, and prepare for worse days to come.” At that time, there were no global ecumenical structures, and few people had any experience of international church cooperation, he added. “Now, the situation is much different,” said Jonson. “Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and many charismatic churches, is imbued with ecumenical thinking and well connected.” The enthusiasm of ecumenical pioneers has matured into bold initiatives of practical cooperation, Jonson said. “An ecumenical vision has taken root at the local level. The role of international organizations is to coordinate and communicate.” Followers of Jesus Christ should aim at nothing less than a universal ecological civilization – a world where wounds are healed, and righteousness and just peace prevail. However, experience teaches us the need for eschatological patience, Jonson noted. “The full unity of all creation will not come within history, but only as history reaches its completion in God's embrace,” he said. “The vocation of the Church of today and tomorrow is to live the faith as a leaven of hope and as a sacrament for the world. WCC general secretary opens convocation in Korea: “The Kingdom of God is peace” (WCC news release, 9 September 2026) 2026 International Peace Convocation to take place in Korea (WCC news release, 7 September 2026) See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC news: Churches set out an economy of peace for a militarized world

Peace cannot be built on an economy that runs on war. That is the assertion of a theological communique released by churches meeting in Panama City. It asks governments to redirect military spending toward poverty and climate, and it asks the churches to move their own money first. Faith leaders, theologians, and practitioners take part in the NIFEA Consultation on Economy of Peace in Panama City, from 26 to 28 August 2026. Photo: Robyn Sekula, Presbyterian Foundation  17 September 2026 The World Council of Churches (WCC) and five partner communions convened a consultation from 26 to 28 August. They work within NIFEA, the churches' campaign for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture: a financial system oriented toward justice rather than profit. The communique is written in three parts: what the churches see, what they affirm, and what they commit to do.  What they see They see first that the war economy is not an accident. "The economy we inherit was designed to extract, and it does so with precision, producing profits for the already-powerful and losses for the already-vulnerable." The numbers sit under that claim. Military expenditure reached 2.887 trillion US dollars in 2025, the 11th consecutive year of growth and the highest on record, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Military activity accounts for up to 6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. From there the text makes a theological move rather than an economic one. It discerns that "fossil fuelled, financialised capitalism is not a neutral economic arrangement but an ethical, moral, and theological problem." Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, put the same argument in practical terms. Peace cannot be secured without "a just transition away from fossil fuel-based, extractive economy": moving off fossil fuels in a way that is fair to workers and poor, climate-vulnerable communities. The same discernment turns to minerals, and to a question the communique leaves open: "critical for whom?" The metals needed for solar panels and batteries also build missiles, drones, and artificial intelligence. The digital economy resting on them is neither clean nor immaterial. Hyperscale data centres take energy, water, and land, including Indigenous land. It also discerns that economic instruments have themselves become weapons. Rev. Dora Arce, of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, gave that sentence a street. Since the fuel blockade, she said, "I have never seen so many hungry people in the streets of Havana." Humberto Shikiya, of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina and the WCC Peacebuilding in Colombia Project, made the same point about land. In Colombia, he said, land and peace cannot be separated. Redistribution is the condition for any settlement that lasts. The Panama Canal is where the document does its own testing. Participants were cautioned not to idealize it, but "to let it teach us how to do theology,” a reminder of a place where peace has already been shattered. It was dug by Black Caribbean workers under a segregated labour system colonial history tried to erase. What they affirm The Guna people of Panama name the Earth Nabguana, and the communique affirms her dignity and agency, "kin rather than commodity.” They speak of Balu Wala, the balance between living beings, and of the economy of permission that follows: no territory is entered without asking. The text takes this as an operational proposal, not only a belief. It ties the practice to free, prior, and informed consent: the right of Indigenous peoples to be asked before any project begins on their land, and to refuse. What it wants is a just peace "built from the ground up rather than imposed from above.” Andrew Suderman, of Mennonite World Conference, described the churches' part. "As communities of disciples of Jesus, we (ought to) live out and then proclaim how society can be transformed into a world of justice and peace . . . we see and we offer glimpses of alternative ways of being in the world." What they commit Churches are asked to move their money out of the war economy and into renewable energy and community-rooted vehicles: local currencies, community banks, and debt-for-social-investment swaps. They are asked to press for a global two percent tax on billionaires, a 25 percent minimum corporate tax, debt cancellation, and living or peace wages. Governments are asked to stop financing weapons and wars. They are asked to regulate the trade in fossil fuels and critical minerals, and to end embargoes as a weapon of war. The document closes on a single line. "Neutrality, in the face of these realities, is not an option." The consultation sits inside the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034). Its next key moments are the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October, and the UN Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November. Read the communique here NIFEA group calls for reimagined global financial alternatives Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland