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 World
Council of Churches
Ninth Assembly
Porto Alegre, Brazil
2006 |
Reports from the World Council of Churches –
[2-22-06]
The World Council of Churches is
meeting in Brazil through the 23rd of February. The Presbyterian News
Service is there and covering many events, concerns and interest on
international affairs.
To find all of their reports, go to the
PNS web page >>
Just some of the ones you may want to look at (with the
most recent at the top of the list):
Nobel
Peace Prize winners lead peace march in Porto Alegre
Feb. 22, 2006 -- Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu of
South Africa and Adolfo Esquivel of Argentina led several thousand peace
activists — most of them participants in the ninth Assembly of the
World Council of Churches — on a festive march through the streets of
Porto Alegre Thursday evening (Feb. 21).
Activists say WCC must
lead global campaign against HIV/AIDS
Feb. 22, 2006 – Campaigners against HIV and AIDS are
looking to the World Council of Churches (WCC) to take a lead in encouraging
churches around the world to help fight the disease and eliminate the stigma
that often comes along with it.
Africa must take
responsibility for corruption, rights abuses, Tutu says
Feb. 21, 2006 -- Anglican archbishop adds in WCC address
that corruption ‘has been encouraged by the West’ Anglican Archbishop and
Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu has urged African political leaders to
deal with corruption and human-rights abuses on the African continent.
WCC urges North Korea,
Iran to abide by non-proliferation pact
Feb. 21, 2006 – The World Council of Churches has called
on North Korea and Iran to make a "fully verifiable return" to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), while insisting that current nuclear powers
have an obligation to work for disarmament.
Christian economists
say poverty 'is the fruit of deliberate policy'
Churches must challenge economic institutions, WCC is told
Feb. 17, 2006 – Poverty is no accident, but is the product
of unjust economic structures that churches must struggle to reform, a
Ugandan economist told a gathering of world church leaders here yesterday
(Feb. 16).
"Poverty doesn't just 'exist' - it is manufactured by those who control the
markets," said Yashpal Tandon, executive director of the South Center in
Geneva, Switzerland, a think-tank that deals with issues of trade and
economic development in Africa. He made his remarks during a news conference
during the ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
God, not
globalization, is best hope for world transformation, WCC leader says
Feb. 16, 2006 – Economic and technological globalization
has made it easier for strangers to talk as neighbors, but is creating
profound new challenges for the Christian church, the moderator of the World
Council of Churches said yesterday (Feb. 15).
"Strenuous efforts have been made in history to transform the world,"
Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church said during a session of
the WCC Assembly. "All political, religious, economic, ideological and
technological attempts have failed."
Aram asserted, "As Christians, we believe that only God's grace can empower,
renew and transform humanity and creation."
WCC Assembly opens in Brazil
Feb. 14, 2006 – Interfaith
dialogue is high on the agenda for leaders of the world’s major Christian
traditions as they gather in this port city in southern Brazil for the
once-every-seven-years Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The meeting opens today (Feb. 14) amid an upsurge in
tension in faith communities caused by Muslim protests of the publication of
cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper five months
ago.
Presbyterians Today will carry a
brief summary of the Assembly in its April issue.
The WCC also posts its own extensive reports >> |
WCC Assembly calls for care
of water resources
[2-22-06]
The Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, 14-23 February, has called on churches and ecumenical partners to
work together to preserve and protect water resources against
over-consumption and pollution.
In a statement approved today the Assembly described water
as "an integral part of the right to life".
The statement on "Water for Life" drew on the demand of
the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople and New
Rome, that water never be treated as private property and that "indifference
towards the vitality of water constitutes both a blasphemy to God the
Creator and a crime against humanity".
The Assembly said "access to freshwater supplies is
becoming an urgent matter across the planet. The survival of 1.2 billion
people is currently in jeopardy due to lack of adequate water and
sanitation."
It said, "Agreements concerning international watercourses
and river basins need to be more concrete, setting out measures to enforce
treaties made and incorporating detailed conflict resolution mechanisms in
case disputes erupt".
Other public issues - on Latin America, vulnerable
populations, terrorism and human rights, and reform of the United Nations -
will be considered by the Assembly on 22 February.
The full text of the "Statement on Water for life" is
available on the WCC website.
Click
here >>
From Carolynn Race, Presbyterian Washington Office
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PVJ's
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Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
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Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
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thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
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politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
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Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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