World Council of Churches releases statements on Gaza, Ukraine, climate

November 29, 2024

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CWN Editor's Note: At a meeting in Cyprus, the executive committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) approved statements on Haiti, the war in the Middle East, climate and biodiversity, Sudan, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, multilateral cooperation, and a just peace in Ukraine.

350 Protestant and Orthodox communities belong to the WCC, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

“We especially urge and appeal for de-escalation of increasing threats and rhetoric in various countries regarding the possible use of nuclear weapons in this conflict,” the WCC said in its statement on Ukraine. “All such threats and all measures that lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons carry risks of such enormity and of such global, ecological and intergenerational consequence that they simply cannot be contemplated.”

In its statement on the Middle East, the WCC said:

Plausible allegations of genocide in Gaza, war crimes and violations of fundamental international humanitarian law and principles—as well as scholasticide and ecocide—demand urgent global attention and accountability. With regard to the issue of humanitarian assistance, as the borders of Gaza are controlled by the Israel Defense Forces, it is the obligation of the State of Israel to ensure necessary food and medical goods for the Palestinian population of the territory.

In an address at the meeting, Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, a German Lutheran bishop who serves as moderator of the WCC central committee, asked, “Should we act as prophets or as pastors? And what do we mean when we talk about prophetically speaking truth to power? How can the churches critically accompany political processes? When should they speak up to power in ways which are more shocking than comforting and sustaining?”

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