Member Church News: G20, COP27, SDGs

“Walking Together,” the inaugural First Nations Theology Conference held on 22 October, delved into the theology of stolen land and what it means for the Uniting Church to acknowledge the dispossession and colonisation of First Australians.

On the eve of the G20 Summit in November this year, the Ecumenical Panel for a New International Economic and Financial Architecture – NIFEA – met. The panel of technicians and ecumenical referents promotes different campaigns and advocacy actions of religions within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, analyzing global economic systems, fiscal regimes and how they affect the different regions of the planet.

World Renew has been supporting the onground work of an Integral Alliance peer member in and around Ukraine for many months. As a result, people have received emergency food and nonfood relief items. In Transcarpathia, where an estimated 500,000 displaced people now reside, families have received cash assistance to support their emergency food and nonfood needs. And in Moldova, where 89 percent of refugees are women and children, World Renew has helped provide medical support to refugees.

The recent Council for World Mission Pacific Youth Initiative was a safe space for the young people to share their stories and challenges and in turn be challenged, empowered and motivated in Coral Coast, Fiji.

African church-backed torch marches toward COP27: A church-backed symbolic torch—amplifying calls for climate justice—is moving across African countries, on its way to Sharm El-Sheik, the Egyptian city, hosting the 6-18 November UN Climate Change Conference (COP27).

Several pathways for the integration of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into the Diaconal mission of Asian churches emerged at the Asia Regional Consultation on ‘Ecumenical Diakonia, Church’s Response to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Asia’.

“Women and Human Dignity” round table organized by the Middle East Council of Churches.

_{Image: Photo: Fredrick Nzwili/WCC}