WCC NEWS: "Our common home is one": Rev. Sônia Mota urges faith communities to unite for climate justice at COP30

Rev. Sônia Mota, executive director of the Ecumenical Coordination of Service, Photo: Valter Hugo Muniz/WCC 20 November 2025 At the Ecumenical and Inter-religious Tapiri* during the People's Summit, Rev. Sônia Mota, executive director of the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (CESE), described how fundamentalisms are affecting Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, women and LGBTQIA+ populations in sacred territories. The World Council of Churches joined this collective effort, presenting Indigenous testimonials alongside the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action. WCC spoke with Rev. Mota about the Tapiri experience at COP30 and its implications for faith communities. What is the significance of the Ecumenical Tapiri at the People's Summit? To speak about the Ecumenical Tapiri is to speak about an experience – an experience that has already been going on for three years, listening across the states of the Brazilian Amazon to how political, economic, and religious fundamentalisms have affected life in quilombola and Indigenous territories and in people's lives, especially as women. And how these fundamentalisms have affected people's lives - the lives of women, Indigenous women, and the LGBTQIA+ population. So here we are bringing a whole process to its culmination, a process that has even given rise to the publication entitled The Sacred Territory and Its Voices that Cry Out in Faith. Just to say that it has been a journey - a journey we have made together with churches, with faith-based organisations, ecumenical bodies, popular movements, church pastorals, so many organisations that joined us in this Tapiri, reflecting also on the climate impacts in all the Amazon territories through which we have passed. And here we have concluded with several panels, many loving listening spaces, much listening carried out with deep concern and with great responsibility as well. What commitments emerge from this experience for faith communities? Because this experience, this whole journey, and the fact that we are holding our Tapiri here to close this phase also commits us to look toward the future. And it is for this future that we want to go on calling the churches, the faith-based organisations, the people who are concerned about the climate crisis, but also about life in the territories of Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, women, we commit ourselves and we want to call them to come with us, to join in this reflection and this struggle. What is the faith that we are professing, and what is the kind of reflection we are making as people of faith? So come with us and let us continue "tapirising" across this Brazil that so greatly needs us and our prophetic voice. How has this journey through the Amazon transformed you personally? For me, as someone who leads this ecumenical organisation and who is also a pastor of a church - I am a pastor in the United Presbyterian Church - this experience, this journey through the Amazon completely transforms the way I see things. It completely changes my way of seeing when I realise that brothers and sisters are fighting for their territories, suffering in their own bodies so many violations of rights. And even I, who am far away in the northeast of Brazil, need to stay connected, because our common home is one. And what affects my Indigenous brother and sister here in the Amazon, or the quilombola communities here, also affects me. It is not the Amazon forest that is crying; it is a sacred body that is crying. This completely transforms my life of faith and struggle.   *Tapiri is an Indigenous word meaning "a tent that shelters those who roam." The Tapiri coalition has worked to denounce religious fundamentalism and racism affecting traditional peoples, building networks of resistance and care. The publication The Sacred Territory and Its Voices that Cry Out in Faith documents this three-year journey and is available in Portuguese here.  Founded in 1973, CESE, a member of ACT Alliance, is formed by four WCC member churches (Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, and United Presbyterian Church of Brazil), plus the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference of Brazil and the Alliance of Baptists of Brazil. Follow WCC's COP30 coverage at www.oikoumene.org/cop30   Watch the interview COP30 Photo Galleries Click here to join the WhatsApp channel with daily live update from Belém, Brazil "Tapiri closing service brings climate justice decade to COP30" (Interview, 18 November 2025) "To care for the Earth is to love the Creator": Indigenous leader at COP30 (Interview, 14 November 2025) "Less Can Be More:” Bishop Bedford-Strohm on metanoia and hope at COP30 (Interview, 13 November 2025) 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