Unfortunately, most of their members around the globe - including the overwhelming majority of those belonging to the Catholic Church - seem to be completely unaware of this.

That's because it's a very recent observance. For Catholics, at least.

"The day after tomorrow, September 1st, we will celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, inaugurating the Season of Creation, which will last until 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi," Pope Francis reminded those who attended his general audience last Wednesday at the Vatican, before setting off the next evening on his historic September 1-4 visit to Mongolia.

"The senseless war on our common home"

"Let us join our Christian brothers and sisters in the commitment to care for Creation as a sacred gift from the Creator," he told those gathered in the Paul VI Hall. And then he said this:

"It is necessary to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice, striving to put an end to the senseless war on our common home, which is a terrible world war.

"I urge all of you to work and pray for it to abound with life once again."

Francis also confirmed reports that he plans to publish "a second Laudato si'" at the end of the Season of Creation on his papal namesake's feast day.

Laudato si', of course, is the landmark 2015 encyclical on care for our common home" - i.e. care for Planet Earth and our natural environment.

We should probably expect that, in the new encyclical, the pope will expound on his concern over the "senseless war" we are waging on the planet.

Laudato si' has been enthusiastically welcomed by environmentalists and many people who may not be Catholic or even Christians, but who are deeply concerned about the current state of the environment, especially because of worrying issues such as climate change and global warming.

Unfortunately, far too many Catholic bishops and priests are still giving the 2015 encyclical a much cooler reception.

So, kudos to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for highlighting the World Day of Prayer and the Season of Creation by prominently publishing a reflection on this year's theme - "Let Justice and Peace Flow" - on its website.

Hopefully, this will help nudge those Catholics who are skeptical of climate change, or those who believe environmental concerns have nothing to do with Christian faith, to reconsider their ambivalence towards Laudato si' and the urgency of the concerns it has put forth.

Francis, Bartholomew, and the World Council of Churches

Pope Francis, who will be 87 in December, has emerged as one of the leading voices in the global discussion on environmental issues.

That's because he is a true believer - not in environmentalism, but in God the Creator. He explains this beautifully and convincingly in his 2015 encyclical.

Being responsible stewards of creation, and being co-creators with God, are part and parcel of being a Christian. Indeed, it is the duty of every human being who lives in this "common home" called Earth.

Francis is not the first Roman pope to speak about our Christian responsibility to care for creation.

John Paul II and Benedict XVI also expressed their concerns. In fact, so did the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et spes. But Francis is the first pope to issue an encyclical (and soon a second one) on the matter.

However, he is not the first Christian leader to systematically zero-in on environmental issues. That would be the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the "primus inter pares" of the Orthodox world.

It was the late Patriarch Dimitrios I who first instituted the World Day of Prayer for Creation in 1989.

He chose September 1st as the date of its annual observance.

Then the World Council of Churches (of which the Catholic Church is not a formal member) decided in 2007 to extend the observance up until the October 4th feast of St. Francis of Assisi, calling it the "Time of Creation".

"Called to promote stewardship of the network of life"

Shortly after issuing Laudato si', Pope Francis joined the other Christian communities and made the World Day of Prayer for Creation an official observance in the Catholic Church.

He said it would "offer individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which (God) has entrusted to our care, and to implore (God's) help for the protection of creation as well as (God's) pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live".

The pope also pointed out that celebrating it on September 1st would also be "a valuable opportunity to bear witness to our growing communion with our Orthodox brothers and sisters".

But it wasn't until four years later that the pope took the first steps towards embracing the WCC-sponsored "Time of Creation".

In his message for the World Day of Prayer in 2019 he noted that, as "beloved creatures of God", we are called to live "in communion with the rest of creation".

And he said that "for this reason, I strongly encourage the faithful" to observe the "Season of Creation", which he called "a timely ecumenical initiative".

He said it was yet another "opportunity to draw closer to our brothers and sisters of the various Christian confessions", while stressing that, since we are in an "ecological crisis affecting everyone, we should also feel close to all other men and women of good will, called to promote stewardship of the network of life of which we are part".

A message from Mongolia

The papal trip to Mongolia may seem to have overshadowed the World Day of Prayer and the Season of Creation.

But in his very first address in the vast Central Asian country, which has been facing its own ecological problems, the pope praised the Mongolian people for their spiritual (he actually said philosophical) and practical attentiveness to nature and the environment with these words:

Your native wisdom, which has matured over generations of ranchers and planters respectful of the delicate balances of the ecosystem, speaks eloquently to those who in our own day reject the pursuit of myopic particular interests and wish instead to pass on to future generations lands that remain welcoming and fruitful.

You help us to appreciate and carefully cultivate what we Christians consider to be God's creation, the fruit of his benevolent design, and to combat the effects of human devastation by a culture of care and foresight reflected in responsible ecological policies...

Furthermore, the holistic vision of the Mongolian shamanic tradition, combined with the respect for all living beings inherited from Buddhist philosophy, can contribute significantly to the urgent and no longer deferrable efforts to protect and preserve planet Earth.

So the papal visit to Mongolia has not and will not overshadow the Season of Creation.

The pope's enduring legacy

Once Francis has returned to the Vatican from his long weekend visit, he will have plenty of opportunities to refocus attention on this time "for letting our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature", "to reflect on our lifestyles, and how our daily decisions about food, consumption, transportation, use of water, energy and many other material goods" and "for undertaking prophetic actions", as he described the opportunities the Season offered in his 2019 message.

That, by the way, was issued only four years ago.

That's like a nano-second in the life of the Catholic Church.

But seconds turn into minutes, and minutes into hours, eventually becoming decades and centuries.

If the pope's efforts to help us Catholics fully embrace our Christian (and human) "vocation to be stewards of creation" currently seem to be unrealizable, and even if many believers reject or oppose his efforts, do not lose heart.

When history is written many years from now, I'll wager that one of the enduring legacies of Francis's disruptive and dynamic pontificate will be the concrete initiatives he is now implementing to put the Catholic Church at the forefront in addressing climate change and environmental destruction and making it a leader in caring for all God's creatures and all God's creation.

• Robert Mickens is La Croix International's Editor-in-chief.
• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission.

The Council, which represents 350 Churches and over 500 million Christians, says the move would sow division.

The Hagia Sophia has been a museum since 1934.

The president announced his decision last Friday after a court annulled the Hagia Sophia's museum status.

The building was constructed 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

It was converted to a museum on the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern, secular Turkey.

Religious services have been banned at the Hagia Sophia since it became a museum, but devout Muslims have long campaigned for worship to be allowed.

The Geneva-based World Council of Churches says it feels "grief and dismay" at Erdogan's decision.

"By deciding to convert the Hagia Sophia back to a mosque you have reversed that positive sign of Turkey's openness and changed it to a sign of exclusion and division," Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary, wrote.

The decision "will inevitably create uncertainties, suspicions and mistrust, undermining all our efforts to bring people of different faiths together at the table of dialogue and co-operation.

"In the interests of promoting mutual understanding, respect, dialogue and co-operation, and avoiding cultivating old animosities and divisions, we urgently appeal to you to reconsider and reverse your decision."

The Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment argued that the building had been the private property of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed, responsible for turning the church into a mosque.

The issue has highlighted the clash between those who want Turkey to remain secular, and President Erdogan's conservative religious base.

Erdogan says Turkey has exercised its sovereign right in converting the building back to a mosque. The first Muslim prayers would be held on 24 July.

"Like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims," he says.

Today Turkey had "435 churches and synagogues open for worship", while "few buildings our ancestors built in Eastern Europe and Balkans stand today."

Unesco has expressed deep regret at the move and called for Turkey to open dialogue "without delay."

The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church has condemned the move, saying it is an "open provocation to the civilised world."

The Church in Russia, home to the world's largest Orthodox Christian community, immediately expressed regret that the Turkish court had not taken its concerns into account when ruling on Hagia Sophia.

And Turkey's most famous author, Orhan Pamuk, told the BBC: "There are millions of secular Turks like me who are crying against this but their voices are not heard."

Source

• BBC
• Image: Anadolu Agency

She served in many positions in the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary.

She represented the Vatican at the World Council of Churches in Geneva in the 1990s. Read more in NZ Catholic

The gathering will take place in Geneva.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) includes 348 member churches across 110 nations.

It is the largest umbrella group of Christian denominations in the world.

Members include most Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed churches, and several Evangelical denominations.

The Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, although it sends observers to meetings and events.

The Church has worked closely with the WCC through a Joint Working Group, as well as through participation in specific commissions or practical initiatives since 1965.

WCC leader Rev. Fykse Tveit says the papal visit "will be a very special way of affirming these 70 years of working and praying together for the unity of the Church, and also to find ways for common Christian witness and service for justice and peace in the world".

He says Francis's visit will take place at the conclusion of the Central Committee meeting, which happens every two years.

Francis will address participants and pray with them in the ecumenical centre in Geneva.

There will be extensive media coverage, to enable as many people as possible to "see and hear what this visit means for the WCC and for the whole ecumenical movement".

Francis's visit marks a "very strong affirmation" by the Pope and by the Catholic Church that "we are actually working together, but not only working, also praying and walking together, which will be the motto of the visit," Tveit says.

Source

• Vatican News
• Rome Reports
• Crux Now
• Image: www.oikoumene.org

They are challenging pharmaceutical companies to step up and help.

The situation for very sick children in Kenya is bad, the church and faith leaders say.

They estimate 26,000 children living with HIV in Kenya need treatment, but are not receiving it. In addition, they say more than 9,000 cases of pediatric tuberculosis were recorded in 2016. Read more

The first stop was Auckland with a powhiri at Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka Maori Anglican church in Mangere.

Tveit will visit the region between 6-17 October. Continue reading

Five protestors were killed and at least 17 injured in the December incident in which security forces allegedly opened fire on 800 protestors.

Church leaders united under the Oikoumene partnership forum in Papua say it would be best for President Jokowi to establish an inquiry so the Paniai case can be resolved completely.

Police have reportedly been investigating the killings with the Papua Human Rights Regional Commission secretariat. However the head of the Papua Baptist Church Rev Socratez Yoman says it lacked details.

"In the report, there is a sense that the police want to protect their officers. It seems that the police want to break the incident into separate cases that are not related to each other so that it will be difficult for us to find the perpetrators of the shooting," said Socratez.

Responding to the statement, Papua Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rudolf Patrige said all elements of society should support and communicate with each other to find a resolution to the Paniai incident.

"The main obstacle investigators are facing during investigation is that people still have not come forward to provide statements on what they heard and saw or experienced," he said.

Source

• Jakarta Post
• Jakarta Post
• Image: Rappler.com

According to newly released Russian intelligence archives, the late Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, former Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand, was listed as a KGB agent.

He was codenamed "Zorik" in the papers of former KGB archivist and defector Vasili Mitrokhin, which were released by the UK's Churchill College Archive last month.

Mitrokhin's papers allege Archbishop Baliozian was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1973 while undertaking theological studies in Armenia.

He had "ongoing communications in three countries", but the papers also suggest that his performance in Australia was considered unsatisfactory.

The third department of the KGB's foreign intelligence directorate, responsible for operations in Australia, concluded Archbishop Baliozian had "insufficient operational training" and eventually discontinued his employment.

Archbishop Baliozian was strongly committed to ecumenism, working for cooperation and greater unity between Christian churches.

He was the first president of the National Council of Churches in Australia from 1994 to 1997 and represented the Armenian Church at the World Council of Churches.

Archbishop Baliozian died in 2012.

Continue reading

The move has been hailed by climate campaigners as a major victory.

The WCC represents half a billion Christians in 345 member churches, including the Church of England, but not the Catholic Church.

It is not clear divestment in fossil fuels will apply only to the council itself, which has a comparatively small investment fund, or its members as well.

Continue reading

Pacific church leaders from 12 countries have signed the petition which also calls on the WCC to send a fact-finding mission to the Indonesian-controlled territory and establish a specific commission to address the issue.

The petition contains a further two demands:

• The end to arbitrary arrests, detention, brutality, torture and abuse by Indonesian security forces of West Papuan people.
• The right of West Papuans to self-determination and their rights to exercise political freedom.

The petition follows an announcement by West Papua churches of their intention to join the Pacific Conference of Churches as a full member after the assembly.

Source

• Island Business
• Image World Council of Churches

Tveit said the focus of his visit was to listen and support the church in its efforts of being church in a difficult situation. "For the local church this means praying with the people and speaking up for justice through peaceful means."

"The Indonesian government must consider the realities of Papuan people and ensure a secure future for them," said Tveit. He went on to say that "struggles for both justice and peace in Papua reflects the urgency and timeliness of the theme of the World Council of Churches upcoming assembly 'God of life, lead us to peace and justice'". The World Council of Churches assembly will take place in 2013 in Busan, Korea.

There are more than 45 different denominations in West Papua (Tanah Papua). In February, the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches expressed concern over continuing violence and urged a peaceful resolution.

Source

• World Council of Churches
• Image: World Council of Churches

It has issued a statement at its meeting which was held in Geneva , Switzerland, 14-17 February 2012 highlighting what it calls the tragic escalation in tension that again poses a wake-up call to Indonesia and the international community.

It insists that the grievances of the Papuan people must be addressed without further delay.

The statement concludes:

The World Council of Churches:

1. Expresses its deep concern for the deteriorating situation regarding human rights violations in Tanah Papua
2. Requests Indonesian authorities to take necessary steps to release the political prisoners, to lift the ban on peaceful assembly of Papuans and to demilitarize Tanah Papua
3. Urges the Indonesian government to initiate necessary steps to enter into dialogue with indigenous Papuan people and to take adequate measures to protect their rights and to provide them with their basic needs and rights as the oringinal inhabitants of Tanah Papua
4. Urges the Indonesian Government to ensure that the Indonesian armed forces stop the killing and the causing of serious bodily or mental harm to the Papuan people and the abrogation of their human rights
5. Commends the churches and ecumenical partners who are engaged in global advocacy for peace, security and human rights of the Papuans
6. Calls on WCC member churches to provide long term accompaniment and also to be engaged in advocacy on peace and security for all Papuans in their struggle for the right to life and right to dignity
7. Prays for the people and the churches of Tanah Papua as they continue to be engaged in their prophetic witness for peace, reconciliation and hope.

A New Zealand MP, Catherine Delahunty is calling on the government to play a constructive role over dialogue with Indonesia about West Papua.

She is attended this week's launch of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua group in Australia.

She told parliament in Wellington that New Zealand has a proud tradition of standing up for its more vulnerable neighbours.

"And yet we are still silent, still colluding over the issue of West Papua. It is not about attacking an important neighbour like Indonesia. It's not about denying the relationship. It's about saying to Indonesia, yes democracy is developing positively in your country, but something is happening in a dark corner."

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• World Council of Churches
• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: FaceBook