WCC news: WCC’s Seven Weeks for Water 2025 urges faith communities to act on glacier preservation

As the Christian world enters the Lenten season, the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network will launch its annual Seven Weeks for Water campaign with a prayer service at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Anna Carin Stenbeck/Uniting Church of Sweden 27 February 2025 This year’s campaign aligns with the 2025 World Water Day theme of “Glacier Preservation,” highlighting the urgent need to address the devastating impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers. “With glaciers melting faster than ever, it severely impacts the availability of water for billions of people. It is leading to floods, droughts, landslides, and rising sea levels,” said Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, and coordinator of the WCC Ecumenical Water Network. “Communities and ecosystems worldwide are at risk. Recognizing this crisis, the Seven Weeks for Water campaign calls on faith communities to take action by reducing emissions and advocating for policies to combat glacial melt.” The campaign will feature weekly biblical-theological reflections from prominent theologians and church leaders worldwide, addressing the connections between water, climate change, and faith. The resources will be available on the WCC Ecumenical Water Network webpage and shared on WCC social media channels. Furthermore, webinars will be organized with contributors to the Seven Weeks for Water.  This initiative also aligns with global efforts such as the UNESCO and World Meteorological Organization’s "Decade of Action on Cryospheric Science (2025–2034),” which will be launched alongside the United Nations World Water Development Report 2025: “Mountains and Glaciers – Water Towers.” Churches and faith communities are encouraged to engage with the resources, host discussions, and amplify the campaign using #SevenWeeksForWater on social media. Since 2008, the WCC Ecumenical Water Network has been providing weekly theological reflections and other resources on water for the 40 days of Lent. Weekly reflections and campaign details here 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 352 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: Most U.S. Catholics agree on duty to protect the Earth, finds new Pew poll

Most U.S. Catholics agree on duty to protect the Earth, finds new Pew poll Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change February 28, 2025   Storm clouds approach a church in Mequon, Wisconsin, on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. (AP/Morry Gash) A new Religious Landscape Study by Pew Research Center provides an in-depth look at the role of religion in many aspects of American life, including climate and the environment.  Among the questions it asked to almost 37,000 Americans were ones about climate change, whether humans have a God-given duty to protect the Earth or just to use it, and whether stricter environmental regulations are worth the cost. Survey questions designed to distinguish a "stewardship" mindset (protect the Earth) from a "dominionist" one (use the Earth) found that while many Americans hold both views, Catholics were more likely to agree with the statement that "God gave humans a duty to protect and care for the Earth," a sentiment that aligns with Catholic social teaching made clear in Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.  According to the survey, U.S. Catholics' views on environmental regulations and climate change mirror that of the broader public, said Becka Alper, senior researcher at Pew Research Center. Most U.S. Catholics and most Americans overall say that stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost and that the Earth is getting warmer due to human activity.  "There is not a lot of variation among Catholics in their views on environmental regulations in terms of race or age," Alper told EarthBeat in an email, "but Republican Catholics, like the Republicans overall, are more likely to say stricter laws cost too many jobs and hurt the economy, while Democratic Catholics, along with Democrats overall, are more likely to say regulations are worth the cost."  When it comes to climate change, Alper said the survey found that "Asian and Hispanic Catholics are more likely than White Catholics to say the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity" while "younger Catholics are more likely than older Catholics to say the Earth is warming mainly due to human activity." Politically, "Republican Catholics [were] less likely to say the Earth is warming due to human activity compared with Democratic Catholics," Alper said. Read more: US Catholics support progressive policies on 'culture war' issues, new study finds An earlier 2023 Pew Research Center poll found U.S. Catholics to be more motivated by climate news than other Americans. And a 2022 Pew Research Center survey showed that religious Americans worried less about climate change than non-religious ones (which remained true in the newest study). Going further back, a 2015 Pew Research Center survey showed similar partisan trends of political affiliation, rather than religion, corresponding to Americans' views on climate and related issues as were found in the recent survey. Beyond Pew, other surveyors have looked at Catholics' views on climate change and environmental justice. Last year, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found that 62% of Catholics believed climate change will personally harm them at some point, though just one third had heard of Laudato Si'.     What else is new on EarthBeat:   21 bishops join scientists, activists to sign letter against oil exploration in Brazil by Eduardo Campos Lima A group of 100 scientists, environmentalists, social activists and Catholics — including 21 bishops — released a public letter Feb. 18 criticizing the Lula administration's plans for oil exploration near the Amazon River.   Will climate goals survive dismantling of Biden-era green initiatives? by Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News Among President Trump's more than 70 executive orders since the beginning of his second term are those involving withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the freezing of "clean energy" project funds in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.    Stop the slop! Give up AI for Lent. by Scott Hurd If, like me, you're worried about the increasing environmental threats from use of artificial intelligence, I have a proposal: Let's give up needless and frivolous AI for the 40 days of Lent.   What's happening in other climate news: Mass layoffs begin at NOAA, with hundreds said to be fired in one day —Christopher Flavelle, Austyn Gaffney, Camille Baker and Ana Swanson for The New York Times EPA would shrink to 1970 staffing levels—'when the skies were dark with smog'—under proposed plan —Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News Scientists scorn EPA push to say climate change isn't a danger, say just look around at the world —Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press Legal snags could foil Trump's climate and air pollution rollbacks —Sean Reilly for E&E News BP shuns renewables in return to oil and gas —Simon Jack and Faarea Masud for BBC News Morocco urges people to not buy sheep for Eid al-Adha celebrations —Sam Metz and Akram Oubachir for the Associated Press First global study of the extraordinary role of animals as architects of Earth —Warren Cornwall for Anthropocene How do you survive the end of the world? Oscar-nominated 'Flow' offers an answer — through the eyes of a cat —Sachi Kitajima Mulkey for Grist   Final Beat: For Lent this year, NCR will share some of our favorite meatless meals. On Ash Wednesday and each Friday of the Lenten Season, subscribers to the EarthBeat Reflections newsletter will receive a recipe in their inbox with a brief anecdote from a member of the NCR staff about why this meal is a favorite around their table. We'll also include links to archival content about the connection between dietary decisions and their impact on the planet. Plus, if you sign up now, you'll also receive EarthBeat's other email reflection series throughout the year. Thanks for reading EarthBeat. Stephanie Clary Environment Editor National Catholic Reporter sclary@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Through courses, community programs, and formation offerings, the CSTM seeks to apply theological knowledge in service of a more just world.    Advertisement

Truth and Action Roundup 2.28.25

View this email in your browser Welcome to the Truth and Action Roundup, a reliable weekly source of information, inspiration, and action for the first hundred days of the second Trump administration. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to continue receiving it. Today is Friday, February 28, day 40 of the new Trump administration. As we reflect on the chaos, fear, and pain of the last 40 days, we also look ahead to the start of Lent, the liturgical season that begins on Ash Wednesday next week. For Christians, Lent is a season for prayer, fasting, sacrifice, and repentance. It’s a season for reflection on the human condition, our finiteness and God’s infiniteness, as we prepare to celebrate that Jesus conquered death, sin, and injustice on our behalf. At Sojourners, we are committed to spending this season in faithful witness as we abide in the political wilderness, relentlessly speaking prophetic truth to the powers that be, and calling for them to repent for their selfish and evil ways. It is our faithful hope that you will join us. — Rev. Adam Taylor and Rev. Moya Harris, Sojourners A note on next week’s schedule: Due to Sojourners’ annual staff retreat, next week’s Truth and Action Roundup will come to you on Ash Wednesday, March 5. In the News Here’s what’s been happening this week: 1) Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is planning another round of firing federal workers, this one is expected to be the most widespread yet. According to the latest reporting, the Social Security Administration, for example, has been instructed to produce a plan to cut its staff in half. This week the Office of Personnel Management issued a lengthy memo that instructs agencies to “submit plans to drastically reduce their staff size by March 13,” according to the Washington Post. Last weekend, Musk decreed that all federal employees needed to email a summary of their accomplishments over the past week or be fired, causing a split in how various agencies responded. Trump later backed Musk in the first Cabinet meeting of his new administration. 2) Consumer-activist and Black church groups are calling for nationwide boycotts in the coming days — including an “Economic Blackout” today, Feb. 28, — to “take back control of our economy, government, and future of our country.”The Internal Revenue Service will lay off roughly 6,000 relatively recently hired workers in the middle of tax filing season. Today’s boycott, organized by the People’s Union, calls for no spending at major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, as well as no spending on gas or fast food. It calls for any emergency purchases to take place with cash and at small, local businesses. Black faith leaders, meanwhile, are pushing back against Target’s retreat from DEI initiatives with a 40-day boycott of Target during Lent, which starts March 5. 3) On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed its budget framework for President Trump’s second term agenda, setting the stage to pass a massive spending bill that could devastate programs such as Medicaid, which enables millions of low-income and disabled people to access health care. The framework includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts. The passage of this framework is an ominous sign for people in vulnerable situations. 4) A child in Texas has died of measles, a first for the U.S. since 2015. The outbreak across nine counties is Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Measles was considered eliminated in the United States in 2000 but has seen a resurgence as vaccination rates have fallen below the recommended 95% rate among kindergartners in many areas. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual.” Take Action Tell Congress: Any peace deal must include Ukrainian voices. Our partners at Win Without War are providing an opportunity to demand that Congress push the Trump administration to include Ukrainian voices in all peace negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Attend a Prophetic Convening Masterclass on “Boycotts, Divestment, and DEI Metrics.” Our partners at the Black Church Freedom Fund are hosting this masterclass to equip faith leaders, organizers, and advocates with the tools to hold corporations accountable, leverage economic resistance, and sustain equity work in the face of growing opposition. Join us virtually or in person for Faithful Witness Wednesdays, A Call for Congressional Courage! Ash Wednesday, March 5, at 12 noon Eastern, will kick off a monthlong series of vigils at the U.S. Capitol. Faith leaders will call on Congress to exercise greater moral courage in upholding its constitutional powers and preventing overreach by the Trump administration. Sign up here to attend virtually or in-person. What We’re Reading A Strategy for Christian Witness Against Trump’s Autocracy | Autocracies begin at the ballot box. Donald Trump is the legitimately elected president of the United States who, in his first weeks in office, has used illegitimate and illegal actions to solidify his power. But while he is the first U.S. president to display such public contempt for the structures, institutions, and civil servants he has been elected to lead, his tactics aren’t unique. (Wesley Granberg-Michaelson) Mutual Aid’s Radical Christian Roots | From the book of Acts to Mennonite solidarity, mutual aid has long been a way to create networks of communal care. (Isaac S. Villegas) You Don’t Have to Understand Everything About Trans People to Love Us | Will & Harper reminds viewers that trans rights are about real relationships, not simply a divisive political issue. (Taj M. Smith) Deep Breaths  dig·ni·ty /ˈdiɡnədē/ noun the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. We are living through an attack on our dignity — both individual and collective. The cruelty of this administration, its divisive policies and rhetoric, is meant to disorient and divide us. It seeks to instill fear so that we forget who we are, abandon our values, and relinquish our power. This is not new. Fear of diverse cultures, spiritual traditions, and ways of knowing has long been woven into the fabric of this nation. Now, more than ever, we must remember who we are — and as followers of Jesus, whom we follow. Jesus cared about people’s lives, their suffering, their dignity. He stood against anything that caused harm. For generations, Black people in America have held onto our dignity in the face of oppression. The Black church has nurtured and protected it — from the cradle to the grave — sustaining joy even in the midst of struggle. And in this moment, we must do the same. Cole Arthur Riley offers us this prayer from Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human: FOR WORTH God in us, We know the miracle inherent in our existence. We are here, our beauty stretching out and dwelling within us. But it is hard to believe in one’s dignity when the systems and societies to which we belong are content to destroy us. We have heard lies of our worthlessness in the explicit and implicit ways the world interacts with our bodies, stories, and homes. It is incessant — this lie of our own inadequacy, this charade of our inferiority. Remind us that our dignity does not wane or bud in relation to anyone’s belief in it, including our own. Let us rest with the knowledge that we have nothing to prove; our dignity, perpetual as it is divine. We will not shrink. We expand. Remind us of our making. For we too contain the divine. Amen. — Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies We are children of the Most High. No political oligarch, no racist mob, no hypocritical ideology can separate us from the love of God. Stand tall. Hold onto your dignity. Do not let this moment break you. Do not let it strip you of your worth. — Rev. Moya Harris, Director of Racial Justice, Sojourners The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor Director of Racial Justice: Rev. Moya Harris Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson Senior Adviser and Director to the President’s Office: Elizabeth Denlinger Reaves Senior Director of Campaigns and Mobilizing: Sandy Ovalle Martínez Director of Congregational Outreach & Education: Rev. Andrea Saccoccio Associate Editor: Josina Guess Mobilizing and Policy Assistant: Miriam Tellez Senior Director of Marketing: Sandra Sims Donate Subscribe Unsubscribe or update email preferences Copyright © 2025 Sojourners. All rights reserved. Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842

WCC News: Faith leaders urge G20 to tackle global debt crisis with urgent reforms

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has joined global faith leaders in signing a joint letter calling on G20 finance ministers to take decisive action on the escalating global debt crisis. Released ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers' Meeting, the letter—co-signed by WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay—warns of the devastating consequences of unsustainable debt on vulnerable populations. Nearly half the world’s population lives in countries where debt payments exceed spending on health, education, and climate resilience. 6 November 2021, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom: A climate activist carries a sign reading 'There is no climate justice without debt justice' as tens of thousands of people - including environmental groups, children, youth, charities, climate activists, trade unionists and indigenous people - march through Glasgow city centre on Saturday, calling for climate justice and for world leaders to address the climate emergency. In the background, police block of a part off the road, temporarily halting the march, while they remove a group of climate activists from the scene because of tumult. Glasgow hosts the United Nations climate change conference COP26, where world leaders gather to negotiate a response to the ongoing climate crisis and emergency. Photo: Albin Hillert/Life on Earth Pictures 27 February 2025 “In this Jubilee year 2025, a year of both material and spiritual liberation, Pope Francis has encouraged us all to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and in doing so address one of the most urgent issues which face us, that of the acute global debt crisis,” the letter states. “As faith leaders, we are deeply troubled at the impact this current debt crisis is having on the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable across the world.” The letter calls on G20 finance ministers to establish a fair and effective debt cancellation framework that reduces unsustainable payments, pass legislation ensuring private lenders contribute to debt relief and suspend payments during negotiations, implement reforms of International Financial Institutions to prioritize human and environmental rights in debt sustainability assessments, and support the creation of a UN Debt Convention to establish fair rules for resolving debt crises, responsible lending, and a global public debt registry. The WCC’s engagement in this initiative aligns with its longstanding commitment to economic justice and sustainability, particularly through its Turn Debt into Hope campaign. Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, underscored the urgency of debt justice: “Debt justice is climate justice. As faith communities, we stand in solidarity with indebted nations struggling to protect their people and planet. The WCC’s Turn Debt into Hope campaign urges world leaders to act now—cancelling unjust debt is a step toward a just and sustainable future.” The WCC, alongside global faith networks, calls on governments, financial institutions, and civil society to support debt cancellation efforts through advocacy and policy reforms. Addressing the debt crisis is not just an economic necessity but a moral imperative to uphold dignity, equity, and the wellbeing of future generations. Read the letter here Learn more about the Turn Debt into Hope campaign. WCC work on Sustainability and Economy of Life 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 352 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