News about the WCC US office

The endowment of two new scholarship funds geared towards facilitating studies at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was celebrated at the graduation ceremony for the 61st session of the institute's Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies on 3 February.

What does the Bible say about climate change? What are the theological insights churches can offer to a world facing an unprecedented ecological crisis? These questions, addressed at a public seminar on "Creation and the climate crisis" attended by church representatives to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen on 15 December, seem even more urgent after the summit’s failure to reach the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement...

Why should religious people be involved in the climate change debate? And how should religious people, particularly Christians, view themselves in relation to the earth and God, the creator of the earth?

The World Council of Churches (WCC) United Nations Advocacy Week came with a bit of good news and bad news on climate change.

Lois M. Dauway, a member of the Central Committee and Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches, has been honoured for outstanding ecumenical service as this year's recipient of the J. Irwin Miller Award from the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. The award is given annually to a lay person in the US who has borne witness to Christian values while demonstrating commitment to church unity.

As nations are spelling out their bargaining positions for the negotiations on a new international climate deal to take place in Copenhagen next month, churches around the world are trying to ring home the message that climate protection is an ethical and spiritual issue.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to hold bilateral talks within the context of resumed Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

"Now is the time to continue the trend" toward nuclear disarmament, four global, regional and national ecumenical organizations told leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, the United States and Russia. "The present opportunity must be transformed into conclusive actions."

An emergency delegation of international Christians leaders, representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the National Council of Churches of Christ of the USA, will arrive in Washington, DC today to advocate for the cessation of widespread human rights violations in Honduras, a country torn apart by a coup d’état staged on June 28, 2009.

On the eve of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), World Council of Churches (WCC) president from North America, Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson will join more than 25 Christian, Jewish and Islamic religious leaders from the United States at a 22-23 September Faith Leaders Summit to press for actions – not just words – that will help hungry and poor people lift themselves out of poverty.