Faith leaders and faith groups have for decades been engaged with climate negotiations, calling for climate justice for the most vulnerable people, communities, and countries who are most impacted by the effects of climate change. Their calls come from both their moral and justice perspective as people of faith and also from their experience as actors in humanitarian response and transformative development.
Tomas (not his real name) is a church minister in Manipur, Northeast India. He had teary eyes when he recalled what happened on May 3, 2023.
“I have never seen such violence in my lifetime,” he said. “They systematically ransacked our places. That first night, they burnt down a church nearby. The sky turned red by flames.”
A few months later, it was reported that 250 churches of different denominations had been burnt. For several weeks, the manhunt continued.
Over 100 people died. The trauma is unimaginable, especially among women and children.
Christians are minorities in Asia and the Pacific. The area is known to be home to the most Buddhists in the world, with a projection of 476 million followers in 2050. Nonetheless, the Christian population may rise by about 33% and reach 381 million in 2050. The highest growth in church membership occurred between 1970–2020. In countries like China, the phenomenon of house churches continues to grow, which is in direct contrast with the global North, where church membership is declining.
When a crowd was gathered on the hill to hear Jesus preach and the crowd was hungry, the disciples wanted to send them away. Instead, Jesus instructs them in Mark’s gospel, “you give them something to eat.”
Recently a group of Presbyterian Mission Agency personnel joined with ecumenical partners from across Latin America and the Caribbean and delegates from the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. They gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, at the “International Encounter for Reconciliation in Colombia: Ecumenical Experiences and Learnings in Peace Building.” The PMA delegation included Ellen Sherby, the Rev. Dr. Valdir França, Sue Rheem, and the Rev. Sarah Henken, PC(USA) mission co-worker serving in Colombia, a country seeking peace after more than 50 years of armed conflict.
I still can see clearly in my mind’s eye the writing printed on the spine of a book that was on the shelf of my family’s bookcase in our humble rented house in Los Angeles. In Korean script, it read: “Why We Can’t Wait,” written by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The family members of the thousands killed under the previous Duterte administration are still working for justice and accountability but have few legal options in local and national courts,” reads a World Council of Churches statement on the human rights situation in the Philippines.
The Governing Board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) is pleased to announce that Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie has been elected to serve as President and General Secretary of the ecumenical organization. She is the first African American woman to serve as both President and General Secretary of the organization.
Every Thursday, I try to wear black to stand in solidarity with my siblings who are experiencing violence. Some days I forget, but working from home gives me the opportunity to correct it. But those who experience violence can’t forget, because they live with the trauma of it every day. What if we, in our daily lives, loved others like God in Christ loves them? Would we turn a blind eye to the violence and injustice we know is happening around us? What if we lived in a world that did not tolerate violence? What if the church stood as a voice against violence?
A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation has returned from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt and is encouraging others in the denomination to find ways to show their concern for the environment.
