Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Registration Closes Soon‼️for the PEC Conference🌲

Join us for our 2025 Conference!

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In-Person Attendee - Register by Sept.24th

Virtual Attendee - Register by Oct. 6th

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WCC News: In standing up for children’s rights, WCC urges “our task is not only to protect children but to sustain the future”

A UN-hosted high-level “Stand Up for Children in War” event on 22 September provided a platform to reflect jointly to prevent and address violations against children in the context of armed conflict. 
High Level Meeting on the occasion of the International Day of Peace at the UNCHR, "Calling for the Ethical Imperative to Stand Up for Children in War" on 22 September 2025 shared several voices of children, including Lin Lae from Thailand and Japan. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC
23 September 2025

The meeting was part of the “Stand Up for Children in War” campaign, co-signed by more than 130 partner organizations, including the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The event opened with a sharing of the current grave situation: over half of the world’s displaced population are children, according to the 2024 UN Report on Armed Conflict and Children, which also shows that sexual violence, family separation, trafficking, and abuse are all rising to alarming levels. 

Amid not only conflict but lack of funding and extreme weather events, the gathering called for action, investment, and political will. 

Arigatou International president Rev. Keishi Miyamoto, via a video message, noted that children are our future and a precious asset. “It is therefore urgent that we intensify our prayers and our actions, and call on the international community to protect children,” he said. 

Those gathered observed a moment of silence for children who have been killed in conflict. 

Florence Raymonde J. Gaspar shared a special statement on behalf of the UN office on Children and Armed Conflict. “Standing up for children in war is more urgent than ever,” she said. “Children pay the highest price in wars. As we speak, 473 million children are living in conflict.”

WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed the importance of not only conversation—but action. 

WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay speaks at the high-level event “Stand Up for Children in War” at the UNHCR office in Geneva, 22 September 2025. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

“Words fail to capture what it means for an innocent child to die in war,” he said. “The consequences are carried across generations and societies.”

He emphasized the importance of working together, and invited churches to take initiatives such as strengthening awareness and advocacy; collaborating for strategic engagement; creating and fostering effective channels of dialogue with political leaders; calling for ceasefires and safeguarding of schools; and other actions. 

“Simple initiatives can make a difference in safeguarding and protecting children in times of war,” he urged.

Ambassadors from many countries spoke about examples of violations of child rights, and how they were addressed from different contexts.

Children’s voices—sent via video from across the world—were aired throughout the gathering. 

Seventeen-year-old Yara, from Sudan, described how war stole her childhood. “Childhood becomes about survival,” she said. “You lose your sense of safety.”

She added that it’s not enough that she survived. “Peace means providing mental health support for children who have seen too much,” she said. “We, the children who have seen war, are not just symbols of tragedy—we are proof of resilience but we need you to match our resilience with your actions.”

Gathering closed with a call to action/statement delivered jointly by Maria Lucia Uribe, executive director of Arigatou International Geneva, and Stefano Bosco, director of Public and International Affairs of Latter-Day Saints Charities. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

Rakan, from Palestine, described how, every day, the children ask: Will there be safety tomorrow? 

“I wish religious leaders and all communities would stand with us,” he said. “We children want to see actions, not just words. The first thing I want from them is to stop the war immediately.”

Pillay said he found it disturbing and tragic if we do not learn from the past. “Many of the problems that we see in the world are driven by politics and economic interests,” he said. “Our task is not only to protect children but to sustain the future.”

The gathering closed with a call to action. “Childhood is a journey of growth, identity, and belonging,” it reads. “For the sake of our children, we must act.”

The call advocates for an immediate ceasefire, and for creating safe spaces for children to speak and be heard.

“We choose conscience over indifference, hope over despair, and ethical action over silence,” the calls reads. 

Joint Statement – Stand Up For Children In War

Learn more about the Stand Up for Children in War initiative

A high-level event “Stand Up for Children in War” at the UNHCR was part of the campaign co-signed by more than 130 partner organizations, including the World Council of Churches (WCC). Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC
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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.

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Friday, September 19, 2025

EarthBeat Weekly: What happens when oil fracking and faith communities collide?

What happens when oil fracking and faith communities collide?

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

September 19, 2025


The property of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Wheeling, West Virginia (Courtesy of Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph)

After Pope Francis published Laudato Si' in 2015, Reuters reported there were 235 oil wells on land owned by the Catholic Church in Oklahoma and Texas. In years since, oil wells on archdiocesan land in California have made news for their proximity to residential neighborhoods and schools

As more has been learned about the planetary and human health hazards incurred by oil and gas drilling, some have pushed church organizations to divest of oil lands and other investments in fossil fuels. If given the choice whether or not to support the fossil fuel industry, Catholic teaching, energy ethicists and the late pope himself suggest church entities should not.

But the Sisters of St. Joseph in Wheeling, West Virginia, face a different question: When an oil company has been given permission to drill on your land against your will, and offers take-it-or-leave-it compensation (but they're going to drill regardless), what's a Catholic to do?

St. Joseph Sr. Helen Skormisley, in an op-ed originally published by the Charleston Gazette-Mail and republished at EarthBeat with permission, shares how her congregation is navigating that reality.

"We may not be able to stop the fracking — and the likely poisoning of our community's water and air that comes with it — but we can use our voices to prevent the worst outcomes from here," writes Skormisley, who is the daughter, granddaughter and sister of miners.

Read more: Fracking will invade, violate, pollute our land, says West Virginia Catholic sister

 



 

What else is new on EarthBeat?

 
by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Because "true knowledge of God is realized in a life transformed by love," the Catholic Church needs theologians whose pursuit of understanding is framed by care for the real concerns of modern men and women, Pope Leo XIV said.


 

by Effie Caldarola, OSV News

None of us individually is going to save the world. But each of us can do something. And here's something that's one of the world's largest sources of microplastic pollution and energy waste. I'm talking about clothes.


 

by Peter Smith, The Associated Press

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is making his first visit in four years to the United States, where he was scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump and receive honors for his environmental advocacy.


 

What's happening in other climate news:

Houses of worship could help fuel the energy transition. Solar evangelists are hard at work on that —Liuan Huska for Inside Climate News

California teen starts an online journal on the power of economics to confront climate change —Liza Gross for Inside Climate News

It isn't just the U.S. The whole world has soured on climate politics. —David Wallace-Wells for the New York Times Magazine

US senator calls on big oil to disclose suspected lobbying over Trump plan to axe key climate rule —Dharna Noor for the Guardian

China, climate crisis and Cop31: five takeaways from the Pacific Islands Forum —Eva Corlett for the Guardian

Illegal gold mining is fueling a 'mercury boom' in Mexico, poisoning people and the environment —Megan Janetsky and Teresa De Miguel for the Associated Press

High school football isn't ready for more extreme heat —Emma Rubin for Atmos

 


Final Beat:

Congratulations to Doreen Ajiambo on winning a 2025 Covering Climate Now Award in the international relations category for her coverage of African voices and women of faith at COP29!

Doreen is the Africa/Middle East correspondent for NCR's sister publication, Global Sisters Report, and has contributed to EarthBeat's COP climate conference coverage for several years. 

Of her work, the Covering Climate Now judges said: "Kenya-based reporter Doreen Ajiambo connects the unique challenges that African countries and women face amid climate change to the COP29 proceedings. … Judges applauded Ajiambo's focus on perspectives that are typically underrepresented in stories about global climate negotiations."

You can revisit NCR's COP29 coverage in the "COP29 Azerbaijan" feature series.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.


Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org
 


 


 
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Truth and Action Roundup 9.19.25

Registration Closes Soon‼️for the PEC Conference🌲

Join us for our 2025 Conference! Registration Deadlines: In-Person Attendee - Register by  Sept.24th Virtual Attendee - Register by  Oct. 6t...