WCC NEWS: On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, WCC reiterates commitment to renewal of creation

On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, being observed 9 August with a UN virtual commemoration, the World Council of Churches (WCC) reiterated its commitment to partnering with Indigenous Peoples to renew creation. The graduation ceremony for students of the Lumad Bakwit School - a school set up for the evacuated indigenous Lumad people of Mindanao in the Philippines, Photo: Sean Hawkey/Life on Earth Pictures 9 August 2022 The theme for 2022 is “The Role of Indigenous Women in the Preservation and Transmission of Traditional Knowledge.” The WCC is bringing both commitment and passion in the lead-up to the Indigenous Peoples Pre-Assembly, to be held 28-30 August, Karlsruhe, Germany. The pre-assembly will serve as an invitation to a worldwide partnership of Indigenous Peoples and church-related networks of peoples dedicated to the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and to the renewal of creation in dreaming together a continuing vision of a new heaven and a new earth. It is also a call to join the WCC in committing anew to act with compassion, to practice inclusive and relational justice, and to affirm our unity in Christ whose love moves us to restoring wholeness in all of creation. The theme of the Indigenous Peoples Pre-Assembly is “Reconciliation: Restoring Wholeness in Creation.” The gathering will explore how reconciliation has often been experienced as a process seeking too easily the restoration of harmonious relationships without fully addressing or engaging the sources and actions of oppression in the past and the present. The destructive effect of human sin manifested through varying forms of colonialism, imperialism and capitalism, has destroyed Indigenous cultures, communities and the interconnected, interrelated, interdependent web of creation. The pre-assembly will also offer engagement with the Indigenous Peoples in Europe; reflection and testimonies on the learnings from the various Pilgrim Team Visits and orient Assembly delegates on the particular issues and concerns that affect Indigenous Peoples globally. Rev. Dr Seforosa Carroll, programme executive for Mission and Mission from the Margins, states:  “An important and integral aspect of the WCC Indigenous pre-assembly is making and creating spaces for relational conversation and networking that embodies active solidarity and is expressed in a spirituality that seeks the well-being of all creation. This is what we hope we are able to achieve and offer the global ecumenical family.”     See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland