WCC news: What 25 West Africans took home from the World Social Forum

Michael Tettey went to Cotonou to talk about land. Victoria Ebunoluwa Olatunde went to talk about water. Souleymane Guindo travelled from Mali to argue that water is a common good rather than a commodity. All 25 of them, one of the largest missions brought to the World Social Forum by the World Council of Churches (WCC), set out knowing the government of Benin had told organizers it would not host it. WCC encountered many faith actors at the World Social Forum 2026. Photo: World Council of Churches 20 August 2026 They came from across West Africa, with one participant travelling from India. Among them were general secretaries and programme officers, young theologians, but also farmers, food processors, a dietitian, a lawyer, and youth organizers. For several it was a first journey outside their own country. The WCC convened the mission with the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, and Bread for the World, Germany supported participants’ attendance. The forum had been scheduled for 4-8 August. On 21 July, Benin’s interior minister wrote to the organizers that the government was unavailable “to host such an event on Beninese soil, owing to certain last-minute contingencies.” The government gave its approval on 5 August, and the World Social Forum ran from 6-8 August at the University of Abomey-Calavi. “The WCC is confronting a critical challenge of our time—ensuring meaningful citizen engagement in public affairs. Delivering this level of participation with severely constrained resources represents a significant contribution to society. It is incumbent upon the churches to safeguard an open civic space,” stated Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, WCC programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace. For Tettey, acting general secretary of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, the land justice panel overturned something he had assumed for years. “I was aware that the church as an entity holds vast amount of land in its portfolio of assets, but never imagined that the church is second to governments in terms of global land ownership,” he said. He left intending to press member churches to help their communities secure access to land. Faith meets the World Social Forum: Oladapo Favour Ibukunoluwa Jacob Israel Eze, a legal researcher with Palmira FarmTrade in Nigeria, found his professional instincts unsettled. Land, he wrote afterwards, “looks orderly in law: it can be registered, transferred, acquired, and regulated.” Communities do not experience it that way. “A right may exist perfectly on paper and still mean very little to someone who lacks the power or resources to exercise it,” he wrote. Olatunde, of the Ecumenical Water Network Africa, sat on a panel on water advocacy for women and children. She left wanting to keep “uplifting the voices of women and rural communities when it comes to water policy, advocacy and decision making processes.”  Guindo plans to take the forum back to the schoolchildren of his “radio chico” (radio school network) in Mali. Salome Kadi Tetteh of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, Ghana came home with a list: protecting land from illegal mining, keeping water bodies clean, harvesting rainwater, and planting home and community gardens. Rev. Godson Samuel, the only participant from India and a lifelong Palmyra Palm activist said, “I look forward to working with African communities to improve the church’s  educational and ecological contribution for the betterment of the life and livelihood of the communities associated with the Palmyra Palm (Borassus aethiopum).” Faith meets the World Social Forum: Cesar Kuzma Behind the mission was Toyosi Olatayo, a WCC research intern who had known most of the 25 only as names in emails and WhatsApp threads. In Cotonou she met them, moderated sessions, and sat on a panel herself. It was also her first time outside Nigeria. She left, she wrote, “knowing more people, understanding some issues differently, and seeing more possibilities for collaboration.” The work continues after Cotonou, with the same partners. “The investment we made in Cotonou was in people, and it has already returned in the commitments they have taken home. WCC will be alongside them as they act on those commitments, and through every activity we plan under the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action,” said Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food. WCC mission returns from World Social Forum pledging faith into action New WCC monitor tracks food security, water justice, and land use across African regions, the Living Planet Monitor covering the same subject matter UN General Assembly Resolution 64/292, the 2010 recognition of water and sanitation as human rights 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

EarthBeat Weekly: How a Jesuit school helped secure a right to A/C for renters

How a Jesuit school helped secure a right to A/C for renters   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change August 21, 2026   A person shades the sun with  an umbrella while walking near Pike Place Market June 29, 2021, in Seattle. The unprecedented heat dome that summer baked the Pacific Northwest for weeks in record-breaking extreme heat. (AP/Ted S. Warren) July 2026 marked a milestone in the United States.  Across the lower 48 states, temperatures averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest month the country has experienced since record-keeping began in the late 1800s. The previous record was set during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, as veteran science journalist Seth Borenstein reported for the Associated Press. The record heat of July is the latest sign of how climate change is impacting our country and our world right now. So too are the wildfires, exacerbated by dry conditions that allow fires to ignite and spread more rapidly, that have burned through parts of Canada, Europe and the Pacific Northwest this summer. Residents in Spokane, Washington, experienced both blazing temperatures and destructive fires in a matter of weeks. In response to the new normal of extreme heat in the region, the city council at the end of the record-setting July passed a new ordinance giving renters "a right to cooling," that is, a requirement that landlords provide air conditioning or another cooling unit in their residences.  In the middle of the effort was Gonzaga University, the local Jesuit college. "The fact is that our climate is rapidly changing, and so our laws need to catch up," Brian Henning, director of Gonzaga's Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment, told me in a story published today at EarthBeat. "It used to be that you could survive a summer without having any access to cooling. Now that's maybe no longer the case." The new ordinance requires at least one living space in a rental property to have a cooling unit (air conditioning or otherwise). It originally sought cooling in all bedrooms, but that was rolled back after pushback from property managers and low-income housing advocates. Public health studies have shown that cooling is critical at night, especially as heat increasingly lingers overnight — a situation also worsened by climate change.  Five years ago, at least 19 Spokane residents died from heat-related causes and hundreds more sought medical treatment during the "heat dome" that blanketed the Pacific Northwest for weeks. That tragedy compelled Gonzaga's climate institute to seek ways to influence public policy to better protect people when the next extreme heat wave arrives. The "right to cooling" ordinance is one of those steps. "Cooling should no longer be seen as a luxury that you get to have if you can afford it," Henning told me, "that it needs to be seen as a necessity that, in fact, can be the difference between life and death." Read more: Amid extreme heat trend, Gonzaga University secures law to cool Spokane renters What else is new on EarthBeat:   Conversion of heart needed to end wars, heal Earth, pope says by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News War and environmental destruction are not just political failures, but symptoms of a deep moral crisis in the human heart, Pope Leo XIV said in his message for the 2026 World Day of Prayer for Creation. Read more here »   Colombia: Bogotá archdiocese launches 'spiritual first aid' mission to quake-hit cities by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Dozens of clergy from the Archdiocese of Bogotá embarked on a five-day pastoral mission to cities in Colombia devastated by the Aug. 10 earthquake. Read more here »   Pope Leo names 3 Notre Dame-affiliated experts to advise major Vatican office by Justin McLellan The first U.S.-born pope on Tuesday tapped three experts from U.S. institutions to advise the Catholic Church's central office dedicated to promoting social justice. All three are affiliated with the University of Notre Dame. Read more here »   They built careers and their own lives. The call to the priesthood came later. by Camillo Barone Many men enter seminaries and religious communities well after the age traditionally associated with priestly formation. Some spent years building careers, dating, or living independently before pursuing the priesthood. Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: Big Tech's fast-expanding plans for data centers are running into stiff community opposition —Marc Levy for the Associated Press The Gulf oil shock is pushing E.V. sales to new heights globally —Mira Rojanasakul and Brad Plumer for The New York Times The EPA's data on cancer risk from air pollution has gone dark —Sachi Kitajima Mulkey for Grist How Trump is trying to crush California's environmental policies —Maxine Joselow for The New York Times Trump admin to lift logging limits in national forests —Marc Heller for E&E News Trump administration halts border work in Big Bend National Park as outrage grows —Roque Planas and Chris D'Angelo for Public Domain How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks —Jessica Meszaros and Katie Worth for the Hechinger Report Great waste in the Great Lakes: How plastic pollution is clogging our waters —Michael Hawthorne for the Chicago Tribune One year on and the global plastics treaty 'is going backwards' —Rob Hutchins for Oceanographic Magazine Final Beat: On Thursday, the Vatican released Pope Leo XIV's message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which is celebrated within Christian churches worldwide on Sept. 1. It's the second time Leo has offered his message for this day, and in it he returns to a theme he has highlighted continuously during his short papacy — the link between war and the destruction of God's creation.  War leaves wounds that extend far beyond the battlefield. It claims lives, tears families apart and forces millions to flee their homes, thereby deepening fear, injustice and division (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 77-82). War also leaves behind social and ecological destruction that endures for generations. Moreover, the interaction between armed conflicts and environmental degradation often creates a vicious cycle, which destroys ecosystems, contaminates essential resources, such as air and water, and undermines food security. This fuels poverty, inequality, and new social tensions that can contribute to the emergence of further conflicts. You can read the pope's full message at the Vatican website. As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Looking to Hire? Offering Retreats? Selling Books? Place an Ad in NCR's Online Classified Section for Only $75 per Month!   Advertisement

Truth and Action Roundup 8.21.2026

View this email in your browser Welcome to the Truth and Action Roundup, your reliable weekly source for information, inspiration, and opportunities for action during the second Trump administration.  Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to continue receiving it. This week, the Trump administration continued to target our communities with violence intended to silence our neighbors and render them invisible. Throughout the primary election season, we have seen increasingly desperate efforts to discourage political participation. Now, the administration is using a Justice Department largely bent to Trump’s will to deploy federal election monitors to selected jurisdictions during the primaries, which we believe is intended to lay the groundwork for future claims of fraud. In doing so, Trump hopes to legitimize the demonstrably false claims he has repeatedly made about our election process.  The deployment of federal election monitors is one official tactic announced this week, but Trump and his allies have also increasingly turned to an old and long ugly one. Following the political success of Muslim politicians such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, who recently won Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, we have seen Islamophobia deployed through vicious political rhetoric with little accountability. Over the years, this tactic has been used against both Christian and Muslim political figures, most notably through opponents’ repeated, pointed use of former President Barack Obama’s middle name as a pejorative.  Now, white Christian nationalism is supercharging this long-standing bigotry in service of a political project that seeks to subvert our democratic process, advance mass deportation and provide a religious rationale for the U.S. war against Iran. As Christians, we are obligated to resist attacks on Muslim elected officials, candidates, and members of our communities. We have already seen the consequences of unchecked Islamophobia in the far-right riots that terrorized Muslim communities across the United Kingdom. We must raise our voice now, and demand that we treat our neighbors with love and dignity, and call for an end to religious bigotry wherever it appears.  –Rev. Moya Harris and Chad Stanton, Sojourners P.S. We are continuing to build an intentional community of people looking to live out their faith in our Sojourners Faith and Practice Forum on Mighty Networks. Please consider joining us. In the News 1. The Justice Department under the Trump administration has continued to show itself to be far from independent from the White House.   • Attorney General Todd Blanche said he would consider President Donald Trump’s views on prosecutions, rejecting the notion of an independent Justice Department. Since Trump returned to the White House, he has overseen major changes at the Justice Department, including the firing of dozens of officials and the departure of thousands of lawyers.   • The Justice Department is planning to deploy a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places throughout the U.S. for the midterm elections, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said this week. A department spokesperson told CBS News that the department will seek federal employees to volunteer for the poll-monitoring effort.   • Department of Homeland Security investigators took part in a wide-ranging probe of progressive groups and labor unions as part of a crackdown on dissent during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, according to court filings. The filings allege that DHS agents secretly obtained financial records from labor unions and recorded meetings of social justice groups in private buildings, public parks and churches while the groups organized against the ICE surge.  2. The White House’s politically motivated funding decisions came into focus this week.   • Attorneys for the state of Colorado say a newly uncovered White House email provides crucial evidence in their lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration retaliated against the state over election policies and the prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. The alleged retaliation included hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation and energy funding cuts, efforts to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the denial of disaster relief assistance.  • Administration officials admitted in a federal court filing that they recommended terminating grants worth several billion dollars for clean-energy projects based “solely” on states’ “political identity” and whether President Donald Trump won those states in the 2024 election.  • Nashville filed suit against the federal government for attempting to require changes to how local elections are administered as a condition of receiving Department of Homeland Security grants that the city uses for first responders. The lawsuit, filed Monday morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges the grant system, administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency, violates the separation of powers and states’ constitutional authority to administer elections. “FEMA has no authority to impose those conditions — not under its governing statute and not under the Constitution,” the suit argues.  3. The Trump administration’s deportation regime continued its cruel work, while also facing pushback from civil society and political leaders.   • A federal judge in Boston has cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate temporary protected status for Ethiopian nationals. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy on Tuesday lifted the administrative stay that had been blocking the termination of TPS. The ruling follows other recent court orders allowing the administration to end protections for TPS holders from countries including Haiti, Somalia, Syria, and Myanmar as part of the ongoing immigration crackdown.  • A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld an injunction that limits Department of Homeland Security agents from conducting immigration enforcement “at or near” more than 1,400 houses of worship across 33 states and the District of Columbia. The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a February 2025 ruling in favor of a coalition of Quaker, Sikh and Baptist congregations that sued to block the Trump administration’s reversal of a Biden-era policy discouraging immigration actions at “sensitive places.”   • U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-CO, was denied answers about tuberculosis during a visit to an immigrant detention center in Aurora, Colorado. Hickenlooper said he was stonewalled whenever he asked a tuberculosis-related question, including who had been tested, what type of investigation had been conducted and where people exposed to the disease were located.    • Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday announced he is suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over Abbott’s refusal to authorize the extradition of an ICE agent accused of shooting a man in Minneapolis. Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty previously sent letters asking Abbott to sign extradition paperwork for Christian Castro, who is accused of shooting a man in the leg in north Minneapolis in January. Ellison and Moriarty stressed that extradition requests are intended to be administrative, and Moriarty called Abbott’s apparent “extremely rare, if not unprecedented.”  Take Action • The Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns is asking Congress to promote peace in Sudan. You can contact your members of Congress here. • Freedom Summer is holding revivals across the country in response to the ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. What We’re Reading “Christian Masculinity Doesn't Have to Be This Way” | “Tap, tap, tap. I rap my knuckles against the glass pane.” (By Rubin McClain)  “How To Survive Christian College As a Queer Student” | “In the fall of 2013, my family drove from the city of Boston to Greenville, S.C. We visited Charleston, S.C., where Confederate flags could still be seen at government buildings and all over Fort Sumter.” (By Oisín Rowe)  Deep Breaths Black August: Freedom is Communal  Last week, in our work in Omaha, Nebraska, the SojoAction team came together in person.  We rode together in Ubers to and from our training sessions and cohort convenings. We ate meals together. We learned more about each other as humans, not just as colleagues and coworkers.  It has been easy to withdraw from society. (I am speaking for myself.) There is so much bad news in this work with this administration's cruel policies and its cruel rhetoric. It would be easier to stay in our own corners and just get the job done on auto-pilot.  Instead, we came together. We laughed together. We looked each other in the eye when we were tired, and let each other know it was okay to take a breath, okay to skip hanging out in the hotel lobby after work and just rest. Some rode scooters through the city to cross the bridge that connects Nebraska to Iowa. Others discovered free concerts.   All of it freed us up to do this work more authentically. It filled our cups. It primed the pump for the difficult work that lies ahead… the work of equipping faith leaders to protect our democracy, so that everyone can be free.  Assata Shakur said it best:  "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."  That is what community did for us last week. It reminded us that the loving and the supporting are not separate from the fighting: it is what makes the fighting possible. We cannot pour into the work of protecting democracy from an empty cup. We have to fill each other up first.  If your cup is empty, perhaps it is time to tap into community.    –Rev. Moya Harris, Senior Director of Programs, Sojourners  The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps Political Director: Chad V. Stanton Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris Education and Engagement Program Manager: Cortnie Brooks Donate Subscribe Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842