Member Church News: Freedom, Activists, Climate Change

Members of the United Reformed Church are backing for an initiative to support ‘statelessness’, calling for improved rights and better support for ‘stateless people’. The statement is calling for the UK government to review its policies towards stateless people – as many end up in prolonged and pointless detention while the Home Office tries to remove them from the UK.

Two-and-a-half years later, Moe’s world came crashing down when he spoke to his mother. She told him that she hadn’t received any money. Like many people trapped in modern slavery situations Moe had no idea that he was working for nothing. His good intentions had been cruelly twisted around to the advantage of the person who had trafficked him to Australia.

The Colombian Presbyterian Church received the “Barrancas de San Nicolás medal from Barranquilla`s District Council awarded the Church for their evangelizing work on education. It came from the Presbyterian Church´s missionary work as a project aimed at solving a fundamental social problem, with many of children, especially in Barranquilla´s centre, were out of school or working on the public markets with their parents.

“Justice Workers are often missing connections,” says Mike Hogeterp of the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue based in Ottawa. Sometimes fatigue can set in when Christian social activists work in isolation within their own churches or communities. “The work of justice is enhanced when we connect with people of faith, lean into worship and grow spiritual discipline.”

Zimbabwe between crisis and Kairos: We see the current situation not just as a crisis in which we are helpless. We see the current arrangement as an opportunity for the birth of a new nation. Our God created everything out of chaos and we believe something new could emerge out of our situation. But first we must properly define our problem. Proper naming of the problem will give us a clear sense of where we must go as a nation.

“A 2-degree Celsius increase in temperature will still mean the disappearance of our islands and homes, and consequently the death of our identity, language and culture,” said Rev. Tafue Lusama, general secretary of the Tuvalu Christian Church, speaking at a side event organised by the World Council of Churches, Bread for the World, ActionAid, and Climate Action Now-South Asia at the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP 23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP 23 is currently underway in Bonn, Germany from 6-17 November.