News about the WCC US office

In a congratulatory letter to the Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, who was installed as General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ on 17 April, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit underscored the significance of this member church.

"The new US-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty signed today in Prague is news that the World Council of Churches has awaited for a long time: the achievement of a nuclear weapons agreement between the two most heavily armed nations in the world," WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, commenting on the signing of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama...

"The prayer of Jesus that his disciples may be one so that the world may believe (John 17:21) takes on new urgency in view of the challenges peoples and churches are facing today", said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, in welcoming a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the initiative by the seven most industrialized nations (G7), which pledged this past weekend to write Haiti's debts with them off. In a letter from the WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC also asked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions to follow the G7 example and make sure financial support to Haiti is "grant-based and...

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.