The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) releases its contribution to the European Education Area on Thursday 1 September 2022, calling on the EU and its Member States to implement integral education in their policies. Fr. Barrios: “We must ensure that learners are respected in their dignity and find their vocation in life”.Read the contribution
Official logo of the European Educational Area. (Credit: European Commission)
Drafted by the COMECE Working Group on Culture and Education, the document addresses the six dimensions of the European Education Area – proposed by the European Commission in 2020 and to be achieved by 2025 – highlighting the perspective of the EU Bishops’ Conferences in the area of education and training.
In order to tackle the challenges that educators and learners of all ages are facing today, the contribution delves into the anthropology of the human person and focuses on the need for integral education, as stressed by Pope Francis in His Global Compact on Education.
As stated by the Pope, we should “make human persons in their value and dignity the centre of every educational programme, both formal and informal, in order to foster their distinctiveness, beauty and uniqueness, and their capacity for relationship with others and with the world around them”.
The COMECE contribution addresses the situation of education in the EU, mentioning the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning paths of pupils and students, as well as the socio-economic and psychological implications of the health crisis.
The document elaborates on the main challenges in the domains of quality education, inclusion, the green and digital transition, teaching and universities, as well as the role of education in external relations.
Among the recommendations to EU policymakers, the COMECE document includes: reinforcing cooperation between the EU and third countries’ universities in order to foster meaningful dialogue and fraternity; enhancing support for teachers in their mission to accompany learners; promoting innovation in teaching practices with a balanced approach between digital and in-person teaching methods.
COMECE also suggests involving families and communities in educational efforts and supporting Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers in their initiatives to ensure better social inclusion of disadvantaged people.
In this sense, Fr. Manuel Barrios Prieto, General Secretary of COMECE, explains that “only by including entire communities in the educational process will learners be respected in their dignity and find their vocation in life, introducing creative and transformative processes for the Common Good and the future of humanity”.
According to the EEA report, production of renewable energy by consumers — prosumption — can offer many benefits for the participating individuals and the society. With high energy prices and energy insecurity currently affecting Europe, small-scale prosumption provides a pathway for citizens to increase their energy independence. Prosumerism can also have social benefits, including a sense community and empowerment.
Moreover, prosumer projects largely draw on private funds from households that would otherwise not be available for renewable energy investments, the EEA report notes. This can speed up Europe’s energy transition to renewables, reduce dependency on imports, and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Prosumers still face many challenges, including costs, regulatory barriers, or lack of volunteers or expertise. However, opportunities for prosumers are growing with technological development and, importantly, an increasingly supportive EU policy framework. Prosumers are now a key element of the recent REPowerEU proposal and its Solar Rooftop initiative. According to the EEA report, almost all EU citizens can potentially become energy prosumers.
A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) analysis shows that 17% of people in Europe could face high to extreme risks of water shortage by mid-century.
According to the authors of the study, this scenario could only be prevented if governments and businesses take urgent and decisive action to increase the sustainability of economies through nature-based solutions.
The organization points out that rivers in Europe are falling victim to the heat. “Four of the continent’s most important arteries – the Danube, the Po, the Rhine and the Vistula – are facing record low levels, threatening business, industry, agriculture and even drinking water supplies for local communities.
Using WWF’s water risk assessment tool, the new analysis shows that Europe will be even more vulnerable to droughts and water shortages in the coming years,” the statement said.
“Europe’s droughts should shock no one: water risk maps have long pointed to distinct water shortages across the continent. What should shock us is the fact that European governments, companies and investors continue to turn a blind eye to water risks , as if they will resolve themselves,” said Alexis Morgan, head of the Water Program at WWF International.
“We need urgent action to mitigate these risks, especially by investing in nature-based solutions to improve the condition of Europe’s rivers, lakes and wetlands.”
According to WWF’s analysis, the countries that will face the greatest risks by 2050 are Greece and Spain.
Cities under threat
WWF’s analysis covers the entire continent, but highlights the countries likely to face the greatest risks by 2050. Among them is Greece, 82% of the population and much of its GDP that may come from areas of high or extreme risk. At the same time, ¾ of Spain’s population and GDP could be at high risk, while cities in the Guadalquivir River basin (such as Seville, Murcia, Granada and Córdoba) are expected to be the most affected by water shortages by the middle of the century.
The research shows the most endangered European cities. Even in the most optimistic scenario, there will be at greater risk of water shortages in cities such as Rome, Naples and Toulouse. Dozens of cities are also at serious risk, including Yerevan, Tbilisi, Madrid, Malaga, Valencia, Lisbon, Athens, Thessaloniki, Birmingham, Bucharest, Moscow, Donetsk, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Bari, Baku, Antwerp and Brussels.
In China, the construction of the hull of the first floating nuclear power unit based on the Russian RITM-200 reactors has begun.
The length of the barge will be 140 meters, the width – 30 m, and the weight of the hull with equipment – 19,088 tons.
It is planned to be delivered to Russia by the end of 2023 so that the power equipment can be installed there.
This is the first of four floating power units in the arctic version with an installed electrical capacity of 106 megawatts each. They are intended for work in the waters of the CHukotka Autonomous District.
JSC Atomenergomash, ROSATOM’s mechanical engineering division is Russia’s largest power engineering company. The holding supplies reactor island and turbine island equipment to all NPPs of Russian design, manufactures equipment for LNG projects and waste processing industry, develops comprehensive solutions for energy/oil&gas/shipbuilding and other industries. The company’s technologies and equipment ensure operation of about 15% of NPPs in the world and 40% of TPPs in the Russian Federation and CIS countries. Atomenergomash consolidates the leading research, engineering and production facilities in Russia and abroad.
International tender to be announced to build substructures for two floating power units, reports Portnews.ru.
An international competition will be announced to build substructures for two floating power units (FPU), Director of the Northern Sea Route Directorate Vyacheslav Ruksha told IAA PortNews on the sidelines of Eastern Economic Forum. He confirmed IAA PortNews’ information about possible involvement of a Chinese shipyard. Taking into consideration the slow-down of the comprehensive plan and other, etc. there is a plan to have the main agreements signed by the end of September: between Atomflot and Baimsky GOK, between Atomflot and Atomenergomash JSC followed by the lower level agreements. The task is to get the first two FPU hulls in the CHaunskaya bay in autumn 2026.
Religious leaders in Russia have expressed their condolences on the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on August 30 at the age of 91. They all express their gratitude for his political role in the emergence of religious freedom in the Soviet Union during the so-called “Perestroika” period. Against this background, the silence of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill makes an impression.
“Mikhail Gorbachev, the first president of the USSR, enabled Christians of various faiths in the country to practice their faith freely, and at a later stage of his life he himself became a believer,” Sergei Ryakhovsky, a member of the Public palace of Russia and bishop of the Evangelical Church. “Many of his ideas were desperately needed by society: the desire to have peace, to make the country more open, to solve the problem of the total deficit, and above all, what Christians of all faiths valued him for – he gave people the opportunity to freely believe in God. I knew Mikhail Sergeevich well, I met him more than once. I do not doubt the sincerity of his desire for the best, as well as the fact that at the end of his life he sincerely believed in God,” Ryakhovski said.
Rabbi Alexander Boroda, chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, noted the merits of Mikhail Gorbachev for the protection of the rights of believers, Interfax Religion reported. In his condolence address, Rabbi Boroda noted that under the first president of the USSR, opportunities for freedom of speech and self-expression, freedom of movement and private entrepreneurship appeared in Soviet society. In his address to Gorbachev’s daughter, Irina, he wrote: “Apart from this, I consider it necessary to express my personal gratitude to your father for the revival of religious freedom in our country – thanks to his reforms, a real upsurge and flowering of spiritual life took place.” .
Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, head of the Russian Spiritual Council of Muslims, said in his condolences that Gorbachev’s political activity was marked by the revision of the state’s atheistic policy regarding the country’s religious communities. He recalled how Gorbachev, still as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, allowed Soviet Muslims from Central Asia to perform Hajj in Saudi Arabia in 1989, reports TASS. “May the soul of the deceased rest in peace,” he adds.
The head of the Traditional Buddhist Sangha of Russia XXIV Pandit Khambo Lama Damba Ayusheev expressed his condolences to the relatives and friends of Gorbachev in connection with his death, noting that thanks to Gorbachev, Buddhists in the country received religious freedom.
“I express my deepest condolences to the family, friends and relatives on the occasion of the death of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev. Thanks to his perestroika, the Buddhists got religious freedom and the opportunity to restore our datsans – monasteries and communities,” the Buddhist spiritual leader told TASS.
Teloh Tulku Rinpoche, honorary representative of the Dalai Lama in Russia, Mongolia and the CIS countries, supreme lama of Kalmykia, recalled that in the late 1980s the restoration of Buddhism began slowly, in particular in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. According to him, Gorbachev set an example of courage and determination by initiating changes in the USSR to improve the lives of the entire society.
Against this background, the silence of the Russian Orthodox Church, and more specifically of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, makes a strong impression. Apparently, this has to do with the Kremlin’s subdued reaction to his demise. Mikhail Gorbachev will probably not be buried as a head of state, like the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin. According to propaganda, he was responsible for the collapse of the USSR, which led to the humiliation of Russia, which now has to correct his mistake and restore the Soviet empire.
Gorbachev himself says that he is an atheist. In 2008, he stated to “Notices”: “In general, to avoid misunderstandings, I would like to say: I was and remain an atheist…”. He says more than once that he grew up in a religious environment. For example, in an interview with “Komsomolskaya Pravda” he answers the question “Haven’t you started to believe in God?” like this:
“Our whole family was a believer. I was baptized as a child. Although my father and grandfather were communists, there was an icon and a lamp in the red corner. And next to him on the table were portraits of Lenin and Marx. So in our family there was equality between ideology and faith. I don’t go to church myself. And I think it’s hypocritical for people to stand around with candles for show. In front of the TV cameras. During “perestroika”, however, I once gathered the hierarchs of all religions in the Soviet Union in the hall of the Politburo and we created the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religion. By the way, it still has no analogue in the world.”
Pictured: Meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev with Moscow Patriarch Pimen and hierarchs in 1988.
Christianity is a challenge to many philosophical and religious systems. But at the same time, it meets the demands of most of them. And the strongest thing in Christian spirituality is not negation, but affirmation, comprehensiveness and completeness.
If Buddhism is imbued with the passionate longing for deliverance from evil, the longing for salvation; if the Buddha claimed that, like salt in the waters of the sea, his teaching of karma was imbued with the idea of salvation, then this thirst for salvation and the promise of salvation are inherent in Christianity.
If in Islam we find the absolute devotion of man to God, Who is the sovereign ruler of the cosmos and human destinies, we find the same in Christianity.
If in the Chinese worldview the sky – Qian – represents a guide for man in the things of life, even in the smallest and unimportant, in the various shades of tradition, this is available in Christianity.
If Brahmanism, modern Hinduism, reveals to us the manifold manifestations of the Divine, so does Christianity.
If, finally, pantheism affirms that God is in everything, that He, like some mysterious power, permeates every atom of the universe, Christianity also agrees with this, although it does not limit its understanding of God’s influence solely to this pantheistic omnipresence.
We would be mistaken, however, if we consider Christianity to be some kind of eclecticism, which has purely and simply collected in itself the elements of previous beliefs. It shows the colossal power of something new. And this newness is not so much in the teaching as in the penetration of another life into our unenviable life.
The great teachers of mankind – the authors of the “Upanishads”, Lao-tzu, Confucius, Buddha, Muhammad, Socrates, Plato and others – perceived the truth as a mountain peak, which they climbed with great effort. And quite rightly so. For truth is not something easily attainable; it really looks like a high mountain, which we climb, breathing heavily, clinging to the ledges, often looking back at the past, feeling the difficult road ahead. I will never forget the words of truth spoken by the ordinary Himalayan mountaineer, Sherpa by nationality, Tensing, who climbed Everest with the Englishman Hillary. He said that mountains should be approached with reverence. In the same way – and to God. Indeed, mountains require a special frame of mind to be penetrated by their majesty and beauty. The truth is hidden from those who set out toward it without reverence, without willingness to press on, despite the dangers and pitfalls. Climbing – this is the history of mankind.
You would easily object to me: how many steps are there leading down? Yes, of course, at first glance, the steps leading down are more. People who have fallen and descended into the abyss are more. But it is more important to us that man still climbed these sky-high peaks. And with this, man is great – with his ability to climb where, in the words of Pushkin, he is in “neighborhood with God” – in the mountains of mental and spiritual contemplation.
A person has two homelands, two fatherlands. One – this is our land. And that point on earth where you were born and grew up. And the second fatherland is the hidden world of the spirit, which is invisible to the eye and imperceptible to the ear, but to which we belong by nature. We are children of the earth and at the same time guests of this world. In his religious pursuits, man realizes infinitely more of his higher nature than when he fights, plows, sows, builds. And termites build and have to fight in their own way – not really as fiercely as humans. And ants sow, there are such species. But none of the living creatures, except man, has ever thought about the meaning of being, has never risen above natural physical needs. No animate being, except man, is capable of going to risk, and even to mortal risk, for the sake of truth, for the sake of that which cannot be touched with the hand. And the thousands of martyrs of all times and nations represent in themselves a unique phenomenon in the history of our entire solar system.
When we turn to the Gospel, we enter another life. Not in this world, which offers us exciting quests in the rush to heaven, but we find ourselves before the mystery of the answer. For twenty-five years Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha, spent in ascetic efforts to attain contemplation. Yogis, philosophers, and ascetics put in the same amount of work mentally, spiritually and psychophysically, while Jesus Christ came from an ordinary village, where he led the life of an ordinary man. Everything was already given in Him and He never had to climb anywhere. On the contrary, He condescended to the people. Every great sage has realized his ignorance. Socrates said: “I know that I know nothing.” The greatest saints of all ages and nations considered themselves the greatest sinners to a far greater degree than you and I, because they were nearer to the light, and every stain on their lives and consciences was more conspicuous. , than in our gray life. Christ has no consciousness of something attained by Himself. He comes to men, bringing to them what is in Him originally, by nature.
I must draw your attention to the fact that Jesus Christ did not begin to preach Christianity as a concept. What He announced to people, He called “besora”, in Greek “evangelion”, which translates as “glad tidings”, “joyful news”.
What is this joyful, good news?
A person has the right not to trust the universe. A person has the right to feel himself on earth in a foreign and hostile world. Contemporary writers such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and others often speak of the terrible absurdity of existence. We are surrounded by something dangerous, inhuman, senseless, absurd – and it is impossible to trust it. A cold, dead or dying world. Indeed, I would like to insure, – these writers, novelists, dramatists, philosophers proceed from the position of the atheistic worldview – that is, the atheistic existentialism of Sartre and Camus, and somehow they have not seen one thing. When they say that the world is absurd, that is, meaningless, they know this because the opposite concept, the concept of meaning, is embedded in man. He who does not know what sense is, will not understand what is absurd. He will never be outraged by absurdity, he will never rise against it, he will live in it, like a fish in water. It is precisely that one rises against the absurd, against the meaninglessness of existence, that speaks in favor of the existence of meaning.
The ancient biblical narrative assures us that we can make an inner change and say “Yes!” to being, to trust what seems scary and ugly to us. And then through the chaos, through the absurd, right through the monstrosity of life, like the sun through a fog, the eye of God will look at us – the God who has a personal being and the personality reflected in each human person. And contact with Him is possible as a union of close beings. The whole meaning of humanity is its amazing analogy to the One who created the world. Charles Darwin shared that although he himself perceived the world mechanically, as a process, he still thought about its complexity and couldn’t understand: could only blind chance really have given rise to all this, and shouldn’t we look for some kind of reason behind it all? something similar to ours? We may add to the above: not merely analogous, but infinitely superior to our reason.
And in the Old Testament biblical religion, which has already been mentioned, the concept of faith-trust arises. Not faith as a theoretical, philosophical or religious belief, but faith as an act of breaking through dead, absurd reality when one speaks to God: I accept and perceive. Thus arose the ancient covenant between God and man, the ancient union. Naturally, the union between primitive, old man and the Divine could not be final and perfect. This was the upbringing of the human race, the childhood of mankind; adolescence followed, and in the 7th century BC. prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Thus says the Lord. I will make a new covenant with the people, “berit hadasha”, a new union that will not be like the old one, like the previous one. It will be written in hearts.”
And 700 years after the prophet Jeremiah, twelve people gather in a small room and perform a sacrifice. Usually the sacrifice was blood. Blood was a symbol of life. And life belongs to God alone. And the members of the assembled society sprinkled themselves with the blood of the sacrificial animal. Such was the ancient practice among all peoples, even in the most primitive times, in the Paleolithic. And Moses, when he concluded a covenant with God, sprinkled everyone with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. But on the night of which I speak, in the spring of the 30th year of the first century of our era, Jesus of Nazareth, surrounded by the Twelve, performed a rite to commemorate the freedom granted by God. There is no blood here, but a cup of wine and bread. He breaks this bread and distributes it to everyone saying, “This is My Body.” As a sacrificial lamb for the people. And he passed the cup to the disciples, saying: “This is My blood, which I shed for you; The New Testament is in My blood.” In such a way, at this sacred table that we are talking about with you, in every liturgy, God and man are united. Jesus of Nazareth performs this sacrifice. And from that moment, from that holy night, the cup does not stop being raised and the Eucharist is performed. In all branches of Christianity, in all churches and even sects, everywhere this sign is present.
Sometimes they emphasize that Christ heralded a new morality. He said: “A new commandment I give you – love one another as I have loved you.” There was a commandment to love before, and the words “to love your neighbor as yourself” belong to Moses. And Christ gives them a special sound – “as I have loved you”, because because of this love He stays with us on the polluted, bloodied and sinful earth – just to be with us. Thus His love becomes self-giving love, and because of this He also says the following: “Whoever wants to follow Me must first deny himself.” Meaning “from his individuality”, not from his personality, because personality is holy, but from his false self-affirmation. To give one’s self, to take up one’s cross, i.e. his service and suffering with joy and then follow Him.
Christ calls man to the realization of the Divine ideal. Only short-sighted people can imagine that Christianity has passed away, that it took place in the 13th century or the 4th century or whenever. I would say that it has only taken the first tentative steps in the history of the human race. Many of Christ’s words are still incomprehensible to us, because we are Neanderthals in spirit and morality. The gospel arrow is aimed at eternity.
You will say: how so, given that we had such great artists as Andrei Rublev, etc.! Yes, of course, there were also great saints who were forerunners, they walked the earth against the background of the black sea of filth, blood and tears. Obviously, this is the main thing that Tarkovsky wanted (perhaps unintentionally) to show in his film “Andrei Rublev”. Just think on what background the master creates this most tender, enchanting, Divine vision of the Trinity! What is depicted in the film is true. Wars, torture, betrayals, violence, fires, savagery. Against this background, a person not enlightened by God could only create “Capriccios”, such as Goya judged. And Rublev created a divine vision. Therefore, he drew not from the reality around him, but from the spiritual world.
Christianity is not a new ethic, but a new life. A new life that brings man into direct contact with God. This is the new covenant, the New Covenant. What is the secret, how do we understand this? Why is humanity attracted to the person of Jesus Christ like a magnet? So he has shown neither the mystery of the sages, nor the poetic exoticism of Eastern philosophy? What he spoke was so simple, so clear. And even the examples in his parables are taken from everyday life. This is the secret that He reveals in short words, such as we hear in the Gospel according to John. Philip says, “Show us the Father, the Father of all.” He Whom the Greeks called “Arches,” First, where is He? And Jesus answers in a way that no philosopher on earth has answered: “I have been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
He spoke similar words more than once, and many people turned their backs on Him and left in resentment, for this was always a great challenge. They had to penetrate a special secret. Christ never directly formulated this mystery. He only asked people: “Who do you think I am – a prophet, the resurrected John the Baptist?” – “You are the Anointed One, the King, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” He asks His questions to this day, asking each one of us, because this is what God says through human mouths. Jesus Christ is the human form of the Infinite, the Inscrutable, the Immeasurable, the Unspeakable, the Nameless. And Lao-tzu was right to say that the name we pronounce is the eternal name. He becomes not only nameable, but even named by a human name. He Who bears with us the burdens of life. It is the center and center of Christianity.
Note: A lecture delivered in the Moscow Technical House on September 8, on the eve of the tragic death of Father Alexander Men; published on a tape recording in “Literaturnaya Gazeta”, No. 51 of 19.12.1990, p. 5).
Gorbachev had a huge impact on the course of world history
Russian President Vladimir Putin today sent a telegram expressing his deep condolences to the family and relatives of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at the age of 91, TASS reported.
The text of the message was published on the website of the Kremlin.
“Mikhail Gorbachev was a politician and statesman who had a huge impact on the course of world history. He led our country in a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges. He deeply understood the need for reforms and tried to propose his own solutions to pressing problems,” Putin wrote in the telegram. “I would also like to note the great humanitarian, charitable and educational activity that Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev has carried out in recent years,” he adds.
In conclusion, the Russian president said that he once again sends “sincere words of sympathy and support” to Gorbachev’s family and relatives in connection with their loss.
It is not yet clear whether Putin will attend Gorbachev’s funeral on Saturday
The funeral of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, will take place on Saturday, his daughter announced. The service will be in the famous Hall of Columns in the House of Trade Unions in Moscow – the same place where Joseph Stalin’s body was displayed after his death in 1953.
Pavel Palazchenko, head of media relations at the Gorbachev Foundation, said the ceremony at the Column of Pillars would be organized by the protocol service of the Putin administration. “There is no information whether this is considered a state funeral or not,” he told RIA.
The service will be open to the public, and then Gorbachev will be buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, TASS reported. There is also the grave of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia and Gorbachev’s political rival. Nikita Khrushchev is the only other Soviet leader buried there, and most others rest by the walls of the Kremlin in Red Square.
It is not yet clear whether Vladimir Putin will attend the funeral.
What are the expectations of the World Council of Churches and local authorities for the General Assembly in Karlsruhe which opens today, 31 August, and runs until 8 September? Here are the answers of some personalities at the first press conference. Three words seem to me to sum them up: encounter, dialogue and reconciliation.
Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, expects that the Karlsruhe meeting will allow the “celebration of the Creator and of Life”. May people welcome each other by listening to each other and may what will be lived here help her to live better in her church and her country! She emphasised the importance of listening to the people of indigenous peoples. She was indeed marked by the preparatory assembly dedicated to them.
Bishop Mary Ann Swenson of the Lutheran Church USA, vice moderator of the same committee, hopes that this assembly will enable us to be more perfect in love and to grow in discipleship. “We want to live an ecumenism of the heart, so that people can say, like the first Christians, ‘look how they love each other’, because there is so much violence in the world”
For Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Nifon, another vice-moderator, an assembly is an opportunity to share the joys and sorrows of the Christian faith. The progress of visible Christian unity is his main expectation, but the sufferings of this world must not be neglected. “To alleviate them we must be united. Human elements may divide the churches, but the churches must work to express the faith that unites them, not just what distinguishes them from one another”.
Orthodox theologian Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the WCC, is convinced that the encounter between Christians is indispensable. “We do not have to wait until we agree on all points of doctrine to act together on today’s burning issues and in the new geopolitical reality. Churches are part of this divided world. They have to bear witness to reconciliation and unity. When the world looks at us, it looks not at our theology, but at what we can do together so that it can believe”.
Asked about the WCC’s relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, which supported the war in Ukraine, he recalls that the WCC is a platform for dialogue. That is why its central committee, in its meeting last June, decided not to suspend it. (read my article here: https://www.reformes.ch/blog/martin-hoegger/2022/06/why-did-world-council-churches-refuse-suspend-russian-orthodox-church) He was pleased that young Ukrainians and Russians who participated in the youth assembly were eating together, despite political and social divisions.
To another question about the impossibility of taking the Lord’s Supper (or Eucharist) together, he stressed the importance of having a common Christological and Trinitarian faith – as indicated by the WCC’s theological basis – and criticised theological relativism.
Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) and chair of the local committee hopes that the message of the assembly will be “God loves life, so he needs us”. She recalls that German churches were invited to participate in the WCC’s first assembly in 1948, in the aftermath of the war provoked by her country. Today, what about the Russian Orthodox Church?
Bishop Heike Springhart of the Protestant Church of Baden calls for dialogue on current issues, not only on the stage, but also in the street. “May we share stories of reconciliation as our parents did after the Second World War”.
The Catholic Archbishop of the region, Stefan Burger, hopes that this assembly will lead to trusting relationships, which are the prerequisite for good ecumenical relations.
Finally, for the mayor of Karlsruhe Frank Mentrup, it is a great honour to host this assembly. “May it be a celebration of the Christian faith in global diversity! May the dialogue that will be lived in this assembly be an example for other religions and the whole of society and may this meeting help us to develop a spiritual understanding of the need for dialogue,” he said.
This first rich day saw the visit of the President of the German Federal Government, as well as remarkable talks by President Abuom and Secretary General Sauca, and interventions by representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities. It ended with a joyful ecumenical celebration. I will come back to this in the next article.
Although COVID-19 deaths have decreased across the world, numbers could rise as northern countries head into winter, senior officials from UN health agency WHO have warned.
Speaking on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus again beat the drum for vaccination to reduce spread of the disease.
“Even if you are vaccinated, there are simple things you can do to reduce your own risk of infection, and to reduce the risk of infecting someone else. Avoid crowds if you can, especially indoors. If you are in a crowded indoor space, wear a ? and open a ?”-@DrTedrospic.twitter.com/UgHjIjqP7D — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 31, 2022
He urged people to get the jab or, if they are already vaccinated, to get further boosters.
“We are now seeing a welcome decline in reported deaths globally. However, with colder weather approaching in the northern hemisphere, it’s reasonable to expect an increase in hospitalizations and deaths in the coming months,” said Tedros, speaking during his regular briefing from Geneva.
“Subvariants of Omicron are more transmissible than their predecessors, and the risk of even more transmissible and more dangerous variants remains.”
Vaccination coverage among the most at-risk groups – such as health workers and older persons – also remains too low, he added, especially in poorer countries.
Don’t pretend it’s over
Tedros reminded people everywhere to continue to take action to reduce the risk of infection – even if already vaccinated. Steps include avoiding crowds, especially indoors, and wearing a mask.
“Living with COVID-19 doesn’t mean pretending the pandemic is over. If you go walking in the rain without an umbrella, pretending it’s not raining won’t help you. You’ll still get wet. Likewise, pretending a deadly virus is not circulating is a huge risk,” he said.
Worldwide, nearly 600 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, some 2.5 years into the pandemic.
Europe to hit 250-million mark
Europe is projected to reach 250 million cases in a matter of weeks, said Dr. Hans Kluge, Director of WHO’s Office for the region. Like Tedros, he also anticipates the winter “surge” in cases.
“We have made great strides in addressing the pandemic. But the virus is still circulating widely, still putting people in hospital, still causing too many preventable deaths – some 3,000 in the past week alone, about a third of the global recorded total,” said Dr. Kluge in a statement on Tuesday.
A doctor looks at an image of a monkeypox lesion on his computer screen at a sexual health clinic in Lisbon, Portugal.
Monkeypox latest
Europe is also home to around a third of the global caseload for the continuing Monkeypox outbreak, with 22,000 confirmed cases across 43 countries.
The Americas account for more than half of all reported cases, with several countries continuing to see a rise in infections.
WHO noted that some European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, are also seeing a clear decline in infections.
This development demonstrates the effectiveness of public health interventions and community engagement to track infections and prevent transmission, said the agency.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday, the latest stage in their efforts to inspect conditions at the embattled nuclear power plant there.
Speaking to reporters, agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed confidence that they will be able to safely conduct their technical mission, which follows months of consultations amid fears of a potential catastrophe at Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
The mission will take a few days, he said, though adding that it could be “prolonged” if they can establish a continued presence at the site.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been occupied by Russian forces since the early weeks of the conflict and has come under repeated shelling in recent weeks.
Asked if he believed Russia will allow the agency to see what is really happening there, Mr Grossi responded that his team is made up of very experienced people.
“I bring here the best and the brightest in safeguards, in safety, in security, and we will have a pretty good idea of what’s going on,” he said.
Political will
Mr Grossi was also asked by a journalist, how they could help avoid a feared meltdown or nuclear incident at the plant.
“This a matter of political will,” he said. “It’s a matter that has to do with the countries that are in this conflict, in particular the Russian Federation, which is occupying the place.”
Mr Grossi is leading the 13-member mission from the Vienna-based IAEA, which set out for Ukraine on Monday. He met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the capital, Kyiv, the following day.
The team’s priorities include ensuring nuclear safety and security at the plant, as well as undertaking vital safeguard activities, and assessing the working conditions of the Ukraine personnel working there.
