WCC FEATURE - In Taybeh - the only remaining Christian village in the West Bank - children live in fear

Taybeh, the only remaining Christian village in the West Bank, includes Christian archaeology dating back to the Roman era and early Christianity. Located in the Ramallah area of the West Bank, the village’s population has dwindled to 1,200 people, all of them Christians. During the 1980s, the population was around 3,000 people. Photo: WCC 14 August 2026 Today, Taybeh is surrounded by four settlements: Ofra and Amona from the West, and Rimonim and Kokav Hashahar from the East, in addition to tens of settler outposts from all directions. Taybeh has been subjected to numerous attacks and acts of arson by Israeli settlers, including shootings, fire arson that damaged an ancient church, and destruction of trees. Video footage shows settlers riding through properties of Christian families on all-terrain vehicles, shouting at and harassing the residents. Children are especially frightened during these scenes.  Father Bashar Fawadleh, Latin Parish priest, recalled that, 20 years ago,  no one infringed on the land and there were no checkpoints in Taybeh. “It was normal life in Taybeh with peace and quiet,” he said. “Due to the violence, Taybeh has been receiving visits from the world over.” Within the last year, he has hosted more than 50 diplomatic visits, including German foreign minister Johann Wadephul, and media teams on regular basis. He has made no less than 10 visits abroad to countries including France, Italy, the United States, and Spain.   “Expressions of solidarity, while much appreciated, are not enough, and action is needed to stop settler violence against Taybeh,” he said. “What the world did for us is not enough.” He called for the world to exert more pressure on Israel to stop settler violence.  The situation of children Fifteen Palestinians from other villages have been killed in the vicinity of Taybeh due to settler violence. “Children who attend schools in Ramallah have to travel on unsafe roads where they encounter the settlers—the roads are not safe, including for children who come to our schools from outside the village,” said Fawadleh. “There are no guarantees for children’s safety on the roads.” He recalled when children were gathered for summer camp inside the Latin Patriarchate premises in 2025. “It was the first day of summer camp, and the news spread that no less than 15 armed settlers had entered the village,” he said. "People outside on the street were in havoc and they were shouting to alert each other.” He described utter chaos: “The children and their families were terrified, and I saw children in tears due to fear,” he said. “It took us more than two hours to calm down the terrified children.” The nuns were also terrified, Fawadleh added. “With the summer camp, we also have an issue with parents who cannot return to the village in the afternoon due to fear, when they know that settlers are on the roads or that parents are held at checkpoints,” he said. “These are people who work in Ramallah, and while the summer camp ends at 2 pm, the parents cannot come to pick up their children, who must stay with us until it is safe for them to go home.”   Taybeh residents must also travel to Ramallah for hospitalization. “There is no children’s hospital or specialized assistance for the entire community of Taybeh,” said Fawadleh. "A study is underway by the Latin Patriarchate, Caritas International, and Malta, to create a hospital in Taybeh, but lots of assistance is needed from the world community to bring this hospital to realization.” He wished to share what he believes will help the children live with a sense of safety. “My call to the world is to help us in Taybeh raise the children in peace and security,” Fawadleh said. “I am not asking for too much.” WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel 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: WCC mission returns from World Social Forum pledging faith into action

Photo: WCC 14 August 2026 The forum’s opening march was postponed for reasons organizers described as beyond their control. The week began with what Rev. Tegwende Leonard Kinda, of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa in Burkina Faso (FECCIWA), a former WCC central committee member, called “a turbulent start” before dialogue resumed.  The WCC mission’s programme continued as planned. Five side events, Land Justice Now, Water for Life, Faith in Action, Fiscal Justice for Food Systems, and Coalition Building, were convened with FECCIWA. Rev. Michael Tete, general secretary of FECCIWA, led the West Africa mission, with support from Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food. What delegates carried home from the sessions mattered as much as the sessions themselves. “The forum was not merely a conference but a movement-building moment,” said Nkechi Oseni, programme coordinator at the Christian Council of Nigeria, who travelled to Cotonou as part of the WCC mission. “I return with a renewed mindset that another world is possible and that faith communities, when rooted in justice and solidarity, can be catalysts for that transformation.” Kinda framed the forum as a call to translate conviction into practice. “The vision promoted by the World Social Forum is one of hope . . . based more firmly on justice, dignity, solidarity, peace, and respect for creation,” he said. “I commit myself, as a citizen, a believer, and a religious leader, to contributing, within my sphere of influence, to this transformation.” Mercy Olaoluwa Olatayo, of Palmira FarmTrade in Nigeria, said the sessions on land and water justice left her with one conviction: that the different justices at stake are inseparable. “Land justice is tied to dignity, water justice to peace, climate resilience to survival, and faith to the courage to act,” she said. “I came away believing that knowledge has little value if it never leaves the conference room, and that faith has little force if it never becomes action.” The mission’s five side events fed into a joint statement on land, water, and food justice in West Africa, drafted with participants’ input across the week. For Kinda, Oseni, Olatayo, and the rest of the group, the return journey was where the forum’s slogan met its test: whether conviction becomes action. Advocacy continues under the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034), with a small mission next representing the WCC at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17-28 August. WCC at the World Social Forum 2024 New WCC monitor tracks food security, water justice, and land use across African regions WCC at the UNCCD COP17 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: GEM School to gather church leaders on debt and tax justice

What a government owes to foreign lenders, what it collects in tax, and what it receives to cope with climate change decide how much is left for public services. From 17–28 August, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will bring 22 church leaders to Panama City to study those systems and learn how to argue for changing them. It is called the GEM School, the Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life. In 2025, twenty church and youth leaders from 18 countries completed a two-week programme in South Korea that challenged profit-first economic systems. The group met at the Kwanglim Seminar House in Pocheon-si for the 8th Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School), a component of the New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA) initiative. Photo: © GEM school participants 13 August 2026 “Churches have been speaking about economic justice for decades. What is needed now are people who can mobilise congregations around the vision of an Economy of Life as well as sit down with finance officials to argue the case,” said Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development. Alongside the WCC, five partners will run the school: the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, Council for World Mission, and United Society Partners in the Gospel. Participants will come from many regions and many churches. Some lead now. Others are stepping into those roles. The school rests on the 2012 São Paulo Statement, the WCC’s call for an economy that serves life ahead of growth. Its companion is the Ecumenical Action Plan for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA). From 26–28 August the GEM School will open into an ecumenical consultation on economies of peace – economies reshaped to sustain peace and dignity rather than fuel conflict. “Panama sits at the crossroads of global trade and finance, where the world’s money flows. It is a fitting place to ask: who does all that wealth and money ultimately serve?” said Dr Marie-Aimee Tourres, a development economist who lectures on global finance at the GEM School. Participants will visit an Indigenous community and learn about alternative Indigenous economies. The consultation will close by drafting a theological communiqué and an advocacy plan. Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics, and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School) 2026 Sustainability and Economy of Life Panama’s faith communities issue urgent call for climate justice ahead of COP30 New book looks back on decades of Ulrich Duchrow’s ecumenical work in social theology and witness 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

GreenFaith - Something hopeful is taking shape

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P.S. In ten days, thousands of people will raise a moral voice for repealing HR1 and protecting our communities. Your gift today helps ensure they're ready.

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EarthBeat Weekly: With urban farm, University of Dayton feeds its neighbors in need

With urban farm, University of Dayton feeds its neighbors in need   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change August 14, 2026   Students at the University of Dayton help grow a variety of produce on the campus' Flyer Farm. Most of what grows on the 3-acre urban agriculture project is given away to feed the hungry across the Dayton, Ohio, region. (Courtesy of University of Dayton) At the University of Dayton, in Ohio, farming is not at the forefront of of the Catholic school's academic curricula these days. But it is at its roots.  Back in 1850, Marianist Fr. Leo Meyer purchased the 125-acre Dewberry Farm in western Ohio, which the religious order then converted into St. Mary's School for Boys, and later the University of Dayton. Part of the property remained farmland, which for the school's first 70 years students tended and grew the food that they ate. There was even a vineyard.  Today, that farmland is largely gone as Dayton has urbanized. In recent years, though, a group of students sought to bring some kind of farm back to the Catholic school, as I reported today for EarthBeat.  In 2019, students with the university's Hanley Sustainability Institute built the first garden beds on old tennis courts of the former National Cash Register Company headquarters at Old River Park on the western edge of campus. "It was just a couple students starting with a couple beds in the ground, and then it kind of took off from there," Steve Kendig, Dayton's executive director of energy utilization and environmental sustainability, told me.  Hence, Flyer Farm was born.  The 3-acre site features 33 40-foot garden beds (with rows of tomatoes, peppers, green beans and snap peas), a small orchard of 20 fruit trees planted along the fenceline (growing apples, plums and peaches), chickens that lay eggs and a three-beehive apiary that last year produced 100 pounds of honey.  Unlike the student farming of the Marianist school's origins, Flyer Farm doesn't feed the student body but rather donates much of what it grows to a partner nonprofit kitchen that prepares meals to feed people facing food insecurity in the region.  In the story, I track how the produce is grown at Dayton, then prepared by the nonprofit Miami Valley Meals and then is delivered to those in need through food pantries like the one at St. Mary Catholic Church.  "It's amazing how we can all come together, and then no matter where they're at, where they're from … help the people in need," Sabrina Furlow, who heads the St. Mary's food pantry, said.  Read more: University of Dayton returns to its roots with campus farm that feeds its Ohio community   What else is new on EarthBeat:   Pope Leo XIV offers prayers, condolences as bishops urge solidarity following Colombia earthquake by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Pope Leo XIV said he was deeply saddened by the loss of life and destruction following a powerful earthquake that struck Colombia, leaving more than 100 dead and dozens of collapsed buildings. Read more here »   Latin America: Bishops express solidarity with Colombia as death toll surpasses 250 by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Messages of solidarity from bishops' conferences across Latin America poured in as rescue workers race against time to save victims still trapped beneath the rubble in multiple cities across Colombia. Read more here »   Young African Catholics say faith inspires their fight against climate change by Frederick Nzwili, Religion News Service Across East Africa, young Catholics are transforming Pope Francis' call to care for creation into climate education and advocacy, arguing that protecting the environment is as much a religious obligation as attending church. Read more here »   What India can teach us amid an energy crisis by Nameeta Renu The resourcefulness of ordinary people has much to teach us. How could we apply it to consecrated life in today's India? How do we live through the energy crisis in the spirit of the Gospel? Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: Contiguous US breaks its record for hottest month ever, NOAA says —Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press This year's El Niño is huge and already changing the world —Raymond Zhong and Chico Harlan for The New York Times Thousands flee yearslong drought in Somalia as hunger deepens and aid shrinks —Mohamed Sheikh Nor and Omar Faruk for the Associated Press So much solar: Digging into the list of every US power plant that went online this year —Dan Gearino for Inside Climate News New Amazon data center stokes worry it would be the most polluting power plant in the U.S. —Hiroko Tabuchi for The New York Times White House begins review of plan to expand hunting and fishing in wildlife refuges —Ian M. Stevenson for E&E News EPA moves to rescind Biden-era tribal water quality rule —Miranda Willson for E&E News Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from oil and gas assets since joining Supreme Court, analysis shows —Dharna Noor for the Guardian 'When you kill it, it doesn't die': the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality —Petra Stock for the Guardian Final Beat: In July, I reported on the expedition of faith leaders, including Franciscan Sr. Joan Brown, into Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in an effort to draw awareness to this critical biome and the need to preserve its 19 million acres of largely untouched lands and waters. As part of that story, I referenced data on Arctic warming — happening two to four times faster than the rest of the planet — from the 2025 Arctic Report Card, a report compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with assistance from numerous scientists and academics.  On Tuesday, news outlets reported that the Trump administration was ending funding for the Arctic Report Card, which has been published annually for the past two decades. When reached by journalists, NOAA's communications director did not provide a reason, reported Raymond Zhong for The New York Times. 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