Member Church News: Dialogue, Support, Stewardship

Justice as a faith connection: Earlier this summer, the second in-person meeting of the ninth round of U.S. Roman Catholic-Reformed Ecumenical Dialogue took place in Chicago, with participants continuing to discuss areas of possible cooperation related to justice.

For 50 years through an ecumenical jury, Catholics and Reformed have been jointly awarding a film prize at the Locarno Film Festival. In the films in the competition, the jury looks for entries that convey hope, transcendence, truth, humanity, and dignity. This year, an honorary prize was awarded to Oscar winner István Szabó

The Presbyterian Church of Korea’s Journey Towards Environmental Stewardship: A bold, promising statement that greets visitors to the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK)’s Centennial Memorial Building—“The Presbyterian Church of Korea Commits to become Carbon Neutral by 2050”—hints at PCK’s commitment to climate justice.

While attending July’s United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, faith leaders also gathered for a deeper conversation on how the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as climate change and political conflict, were effecting children.

Supported by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, MacKay Medical Mission sent a team of medical personnel to Ukraine earlier this year, making it the first team from Asia to provide voluntary medical assistance on site since the Ukrainian-Russian conflict began.

Human rights violations in Israel and Palestine have nearly tripled during the past year, according to reports from the most recent set of ecumenical accompaniers from the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

What actually constitutes the others? And what factors lead to getting closer to the others? One of many examples is the different languages that are spoken. Another, at least in South Africa, even today, some 30 years after the end of apartheid, is the question of one’s cultural origins. Marcus Grohmann asks what is needed for a rapprochement and also looks at what is necessary for an encounter at eye level.

Report exposes Indonesian military assaults on West Papua’s Indigenous villages: Human Rights Monitor, a human rights organisation focusing on West Papua, Indonesia, has just released a report titled “Destroy Them First, Discuss Human Rights Later: An investigation of Indonesian Security Forces’ operations in Kiwirok under International Law.”

_{Image: Participants at the U.S. Roman Catholic-Reformed Ecumenical Dialogue, Chicago, June 2023 (Courtesy of Dianna Wright).}