In his sermon, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent heartfelt wishes to all non-Orthodox Christians who celebrated Easter on Sunday, March 31, after leading the Sunday Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. Theodore” in the “Vlanga” quarter.
“On this day, the eternal message of the Resurrection sounds more deeply than ever, as our non-Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters commemorate the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead, celebrating the holy Easter. We have sent the greetings of the Holy Great Church of Christ to all the Christian communities here. But we also heartily greet with love all Christians around the world who are celebrating Easter today. We ask the Lord of Glory that the upcoming common celebration of Easter next year will not be a mere coincidence, but will mark the beginning of a single date for its observance by both Eastern and Western Christendom,” noted Patriarch Bartholomew.
“This aspiration is particularly significant in light of the upcoming 1700th anniversary of the convening of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 2025. Among its key discussions is the question of establishing a common time frame for the celebration of Easter. We are optimistic as there is good will and desire on both sides. Because it is truly scandalous to celebrate separately the unique event of the one Resurrection of the one Lord!”, the patriarch also stated.
Accra, Ghana, April 19, 2024. The central theme of the fourth Global Christian Forum (GCF) is taken from the Gospel of John: “That the world may know” (John 17:21). In many ways, the assembly delved deeper into this great text, where Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples by sending them into the world.
This forum had great logic. On the first day, we affirmed that Christ alone unites us. The second, with the visit to the Cape Coast fortress where millions of slaves passed through, we confessed our unfaithfulness to the will of God. On the third day, we recognized our need to be forgiven and healed before being sent. Sending is the theme of the fourth day.
Love is the cement of ecumenism
It is no coincidence that John 17 was chosen as the key text. Indeed, “if the Bible is a sanctuary, John 17 is the “holy of holies”: a revelation of an intimate dialogue between the Father and the Son made flesh,” says Ganoun Diop, of the Adventist Church in Senegal. It is a great mystery: Jesus loved us so that we would be reborn into a new life. GCF is a tool that God uses to bring His love. And love is the cement of ecumenism!
For Catherine Shirk Lukas, professor at the Catholic University of Paris, the ecumenical movement is a movement of love because Jesus prayed for divine love to be spread throughout the world (John 3.16). “That the world may know”: this promise is first and foremost for those who have been victims of violence and abuse. “We have to listen to them, see them and support them, being humble and repenting of our mistakes.”
The Ghanaian Gertrude Fefoame is involved in the network for the disabled of the World Council of Churches. She herself is blind and testifies that there are still many barriers to welcoming them into the community: “Forgiveness and healing given by Christ are a liberation. It frees from all discrimination and includes people with disabilities.”
For Coptic Orthodox Archbishop Angaelos, Jesus’ call to unity is a challenge that requires patience and kindness. “We must function as a body with Christ at our head. This means considering the other parts of this body in our decisions.” Jesus’ prayer in John 17 calls him to live the truth that the Son of God came so that we might have life in fullness. We are ministers of his reconciliation so that the world sees Him and not us.
The effective methodology of the Forum
What pleases Victor Lee, a Pentecostal from Malaysia, is the methodology of sharing paths of faith in the Forum. It allows Pentecostals to make Jesus known by collaborating with other Churches, through the power of the Spirit.
Theologian Richard Howell, from India, recognizes that these sharings transformed his life. “After my mom was miraculously healed when I was 12, I then became a Pentecostal. I thought only Pentecostals were saved. Hearing Christians from other churches share their faith at the Forum, I asked God to forgive my ignorance. I discovered brothers and sisters and that I was missing 2000 years of Christian heritage. It was a new conversion.”
Likewise, a leader of an independent African Church discovered the richness of listening to stories of faith. “I realized that we have the same faith in Christ. If we start to listen to each other, we will love each other and overcome our separations.”
The Forum’s methodology also combines presentations with times of dialogue between six and eight people around a table. This “knitting” is very effective for getting to know yourself better on a personal level. We were thus invited to share on these three questions: “What do you want the world to know? How did you know Christ? How do you make Christ known? » And, at the end of the meeting, this other question: “What inspiration have you received during these days and that you would like to pass on to your home”
A Road to Emmaus
The story of the two disciples walking towards Emmaus is at the heart of what the Global Christian Forum is looking for. For Archbishop Flávio Pace, secretary of the dicastery for promoting Christian unity, it symbolizes the Church on the move, joined by Christ. It is he who must be put at the center, and it is with him that we must open the Scriptures. Reflecting on the recent synod of the Catholic Church, he affirms that there cannot be a true synod without the ecumenical dimension. The prayer vigil at the Vatican “Together” gave a strong sign in this direction.
On two occasions, the delegates were invited to an “Emmaus Way” to get to know a person we did not yet know. As for me, I walked with Sharaz Alam, a young pastor, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, in the park adjoining the conference center, then in the shade of large trees around a fresh drink. We shared the meaning of the Emmaus story. He also spoke to me about his evangelization work with the 300 young people in his parish and his doctoral project on the challenges that Islam poses to the Church in his country.
The story of Emmaus is also at the heart of Focolare spirituality, which emphasizes the importance of experiencing the presence of Christ among us. It is presented by Enno Dijkema, co-director of the Center for Unity of this great Catholic movement, open to members of other Churches. Indeed, its goal is to contribute to realizing the “testament of Jesus” in John 17. The Gospel is at its basis, in particular the new commandment of reciprocal love given by Christ.
Finally, the horizon of 2033 is like a road to Emmaus towards the jubilee of the 2000 years of the resurrection of Jesus. The Swiss Olivier Fleury, president of the JC2033 initiative, speaks with passion of the wonderful opportunity for witness in unity that this Jubilee represents… “so that the world may know” that Jesus-Christ is risen!
“Six months into the war, 10,000 Palestinian women in Gaza have been killed, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned,” said UN Women, in a new report.
“More than one million women and girls in Gaza have almost no food, no access to safe water, latrines, washrooms, or sanitary pads, with disease growing amidst inhumane living conditions.”
Echoing those concerns, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new ceasefire call so that humanitarian relief can be brought into Gaza to help rebuild hospitals including Al Shifa, which has been “basically destroyed” after a recent Israeli incursion. “The management is trying to get the emergency department cleaned (but) the work is just enormous to get just a cleaning done, let alone to get supplies,” said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, following a new UN health agency mission to the devastated medical facility in Gaza City on Monday.
Only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain functional meaning that it is essential to “preserve what is left” of the enclave’s health system, Mr. Jasarevic insisted.
But needs remain massive with more than 76,000 people injured, according to the local authorities, and several UN agencies have repeatedly warned that amputations and C-section births have gone ahead without anaesthetic.
“Once again we’re calling really for the deconfliction mechanism to be effective, to be transparent and to be workable,” the WHO officer said, referring to the approvals system used by humanitarians in conjunction with the warring parties to try to ensure that aid convoys are not targeted.
Concerns remain over the deconfliction protocol after seven aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen were killed in Israeli airstrikes on 1 April.
But “more than half” of planned WHO missions between last October and the end of March “have been either denied or delayed or face other obstacles so they have to be postponed, so we really need that access”, Mr. Jasarevic insisted, amid repeated dire warnings from humanitarians about impending famine in Gaza.
No relief for injured
A lack of staff, needles, stitches and other essential medical equipment have meant that “injured children often languish in pain,” in hospitals or in makeshift shelters, noted Tess Ingram, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Communication specialist.
Speaking from Cairo after her latest mission to northern Gaza where her UN vehicle came under attack, Ms. Ingram told journalists that it was notable just how many youngsters had been injured during intense Israeli bombardment, launched in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October.
“Imagine for a second being strip-searched naked and questioned for hours, told that you’re safe and then you leave; you quickly walk down the street praying that you will be okay. But then you’re shot at, your father is killed and a bullet penetrates your naked pelvis causing serious internal and external injuries that are going to require reconstructive surgery. At a field hospital Younis told me this happened to him. He is 14.”
The UNICEF officer also highlighted how difficult it remains to evacuate desperately injured or sick patients for medical care outside Gaza. Less than half of all “medivac” requests have been approved meaning that only around 4,500 people – “most of them children” – have been able to leave Gaza at a rate of less than 20 a day.
Rights chief’s call
Highlighting the plight of those in Gaza, UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Monday urged “all States with influence” to halt the “increasingly horrific human rights and humanitarian crisis” unfolding there.
“Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights maintained, before repeating calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages.
West Bank spiralling
The High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed deep concern about rising violence and “waves of attacks” in recent days against Palestinians in the West Bank “by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often accompanied or supported by Israeli Security Forces (ISF)”.
Following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family, four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks, Mr. Türk said in a statement.
Citing information received by his office, OHCHR, the UN rights chief reported that armed settlers and Israeli forces entered “a number of towns” including Al Mughayyer, Beitin village in Ramallah, Duma and Qusra in Nablus, as well as the Bethlehem and Hebron Governorates.
Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured in the ensuing violence “and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched”, the High Commissioner said, before insisting that “neither Palestinians nor Israelis should take the law into their own hands to exact revenge”.
Regional ‘trigger’
In a related development in Geneva, the head of a high-level UN-appointed independent rights probe into the Occupied Palestinian Territory spoke of her “serious alarm” at the potential for military escalation between Israel and Iran and the risks of triggering a regional conflict.
In a briefing to Arab League States days after Iran launched a massive drone and missile strike against Israel, Navi Pillay highlighted the “unprecedented” scale of war sustained by Israel. To date, more than 33,200 people have been killed, according to Gaza’s health authority, Ms. Pillay said, with some 40 per cent of schools directly hit in attacks, and 1.7 million people displaced inside the enclave.
In an oral update to the Human Rights Council – UN’s paramount human rights body – Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif said that DPRK (more commonly known as North Korea) was showing no signs of compliance.
“As there are no indications that the State will address impunity, it is imperative that accountability is pursued outside the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” she said.
“This should be achieved first and foremost through referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), or national level prosecutions in accordance with international standards under accepted principles of extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction,” she urged.
The deputy head of rights office OHCHR noted that non-judicial accountability was important.
“Moving ahead in tandem with criminal accountability efforts, non-judicial accountability is essential if victims are to receive some form of justice in their lifetime.”
Ms. Al-Nashif said that in developing possible strategies, OHCHR had consulted widely in the past year with national and international judicial officials and practitioners, governments, civil society experts and academia.
Last month, for instance, the Office brought together experts in all aspects of accountability to a conference to discuss ways forward and best practices.
“This included criminal justice avenues and civil liability options as well as non-judicial forms of accountability such as truth-telling, memorialization, and reparations,” she said.
Raising awareness
The Deputy High Commissioner said OHCHR had dedicated extra resources in the past year towards raising awareness about the human rights situation in North Korea.
In April 2023, it published a landmark report on enforced disappearances and abductions, including of nationals from neighbouring Republic of Korea and Japan.
“The report illustrated the impact of the crime on victims and their families, and their demands and needs relating to accountability,” she said.
Protect escapees
Ms. Al-Nashif highlighted that those who escaped North Korea and victims of rights abuses are a vital source of information on the situation in the country as well as for any accountability processes.
“I continue to call on all relevant Member States to ensure that OHCHR has full and unhindered access to escapees,” she said.
She also urged all States to refrain from forcibly repatriating people to DPRK, and to provide them with protection and humanitarian support.
“Repatriation puts them at real risk of torture, arbitrary detention, or other serious human rights violations,” she cautioned.
Deputy High Commissioner Al-Nashif addresses the Human Rights Council.
A conference at the European Parliament to make the world better
The social and humanitarian activities of minority religious or belief organizations in the EU are useful for European citizens and society but are too often ignored by political leaders and media outlets.
This was the message sent by a wide range of speakers with various religious and belief backgrounds at the Faith and Freedom Summit III hosted at the European Parliament in Brussels on 18 April.
However, the work of these minority organizations with their awareness of climate change or anti-drug campaigns, their aid programs to refugees and homeless people, on the sites of earthquakes and other natural disasters, deserves to be highlighted, recognized and known in order to escape invisibility and sometimes unfounded stigmatization.
In the framework of this conference, I used the debate time to share some views and reflections from a human rights perspective that I summarize in a structured way hereafter.
Social and humanitarian activities of religious or belief organizations ignored and silenced
The numerous presentations by spokespersons of minority religious and philosophical organizations which enriched this conference highlighted the importance and the impact of their humanitarian, charitable, educational and social activities to make the world a better place to live. They have also shown that they are useful to the States of the European Union which cannot solve all social problems alone without the contribution of this segment of civil society.
However, there is practically no trace of their activities in the media. We may wonder about the underlying reasons for this situation. Social work is a form of public and visible expression of these organizations. Expressing one’s personal faith through contribution to these activities does not bother anyone. However, doing so in the name of a religious entity is sometimes perceived by secular movements and their political relays as competitive with their philosophical convictions and as a potential danger of the return of the influence of historic Churches which for centuries have dictated their law to States and their sovereigns. Media outlets are also permeated by this culture of secularization and neutrality.
In the shadow of this distrust, religious or philosophical minorities are suspected by these same actors, but also by dominant Churches, of using their social and humanitarian activities as a tool for public self-promotion and to attract new members. Last but not least, some minorities have found themselves for more than 25 years in blacklists of so-called harmful and undesirable “cults” which were drafted and endorsed by a number of EU states and widely disseminated by the media. However, in international law, the concept of “cult” does not exist. Furthermore, the Catholic Church should remember that the famous Mother Teresa in India, despite her Nobel Peace Prize, was accused of wanting to convert the untouchables, and others, to Christianity in her Catholic hospitals and educational institutions.
What is in question here is the freedom of expression of religious or philosophical minority groups as collective and visible entities, which are not hiding their identity in the public space.
These faith-based organizations are seen as “undesirable” in certain European countries and considered a threat to the established order and right-thinking. The reaction is then in political circles and in the media to keep silent about their constructive social and humanitarian activities as if they had never existed. Or, through activism hostile to these movements, they are presented in a completely negative light, such as “it is undue proselytism”, “it is to recruit new members among the victims”, etc.
Towards more inclusive societies in the European Union
Double standards must be fundamentally avoided in the political and media treatment of civil society actors to avoid any damaging tension and hostility between social groups. Segregation leading to fragmentation of society and separatism breeds hatred and hate crimes. Inclusiveness brings respect, solidarity and social peace.
Coverage of social, charitable, educational and humanitarian activities of religious and philosophical groups must be equitable. Justice must be done, at its fair value and without prejudice, to anyone who contributes to the well-being of the citizens of the European Union.
With the 2024 Paris Olympics fast approaching, a heated debate over religious symbols has erupted in France, pitting the country’s strict secularism against the religious freedoms of athletes. A recent report by Professor Rafael Valencia of the University of Seville warns that France’s crackdown on religious expression could lead to a two-tiered system at the Olympics, with French athletes facing tighter restrictions than their international counterparts.
The issue came to a head last year when the French Senate voted to ban the wearing of any “ostensible religious symbols” by athletes representing France (even if apparently not specifically for the Olympics), a move that would prohibit Muslim women from wearing hijabs or Sikh men from wearing turbans. While this law has not yet been finalized, the French government has made its position clear, with Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra declaring that French team members “cannot express their religious opinions and beliefs” during the Olympics. Professor Valencia argues that this stance contradicts the fundamental principles of the Olympic movement. As he writes, “the firm intention of the (French) political voices on religious symbolism puts in question the foundations of modern Olympism” – values like respect, human dignity, and commitment to human rights. Valencia warns that if the French restrictions are implemented, it would create an unprecedented situation where “we would find ourselves with Olympics in which we could appreciate a two-speed religious freedom, of greater breadth for non-French athletes, causing a comparative grievance of unheard-of precedents in a competition of these characteristics.”
Valencia criticizes France’s actions, stating that the country is engaged in a “new attempt (in the line of so many others registered in France in recent years) to eradicate religion from the public space, transgressing the limits of secularism and hovering over the fields of secularism.” This, quoting Maria Jose Valero, “would lead to a distortion of the intended state neutrality that would lead to a restrictive interpretation of the principle of secularism and, ultimately, a restriction of rights such as religious freedom.” The Olympic movement has made great strides in recent years in accommodating religious expression, with the International Basketball Federation and FIFA both relaxing rules to allow for religious headwear.
But France’s desire to enforce a strict secularism threatens to upend this progress, potentially excluding Muslim, Sikh, and other religious athletes from representing their country at the Paris Games.
As the world prepares to converge on the French capital, the debate over religious symbols looms large. If France does not change course, the 2024 Olympics may be remembered more for the battles off the field of play than the triumphs within it.
People who find themselves rummaging around in the refrigerator for a snack not long after they’ve eaten a filling meal might have overactive food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite.
UCLA psychologists have discovered a circuit in the brain of mice that makes them crave food and seek it out, even when they are not hungry. When stimulated, this cluster of cells propels mice to forage vigorously and to prefer fatty and pleasurable foods like chocolate over healthier foods like carrots.
People possess the same kinds of cells, and if confirmed in humans, the finding could offer new ways of understanding eating disorders.
The report, published in the journal Nature Communications, is the first to find cells dedicated to food-seeking in a part of the mouse brainstem usually associated with panic, but not with feeding.
“This region we’re studying is called the periaqueductal gray (PAG), and it is in the brainstem, which is very old in evolutionary history and because of that, it is functionally similar between humans and mice,” said corresponding author Avishek Adhikari, a UCLA associate professor of psychology. “Although our findings were a surprise, it makes sense that food-seeking would be rooted in such an ancient part of the brain, since foraging is something all animals need to do.”
Adhikari studies how fear and anxiety help animals assess risks and minimize exposure to threats, and his group made the discovery while trying to learn how this particular spot was involved in fear.
“Activation of the entire PAG region causes a dramatic panic response in both mice and humans. But when we selectively stimulated only this specific cluster of PAG neurons called vgat PAG cells, they did not alter fear, and instead caused foraging and feeding,” Adhikari said.
The researchers injected into mouse brains a virus genetically engineered to make the brain cells produce a light-sensitive protein. When a laser shines on the cells via a fiber-optic implant, the new protein translates that light to electrical neural activity in the cells. A miniature microscope, developed at UCLA and affixed to the mouse’s head, recorded the neural activity of cells.
When stimulated with laser light, the vgat PAG cells fired and kicked the mouse into hot pursuit of live crickets and non-prey food, even if it had just eaten a large meal. The stimulation also induced the mouse to follow moving objects that were not food — like ping pong balls, although it did not try to eat them — and it also prompted the mouse to confidently explore everything in its enclosure.
“The results suggest the following behavior is related more to wanting than to hunger,” Adhikari said. “Hunger is aversive, meaning that mice usually avoid feeling hungry if they can. But they seek out activation of these cells, suggesting that the circuit is not causing hunger. Instead, we think this circuit causes the craving of highly rewarding, high-caloric food. These cells can cause the mouse to eat more high-calorie foods even in the absence of hunger.”
Satiated mice with activated vgat PAG cells craved fatty foods so much, they were willing to endure foot shocks to get them, something full mice normally would not do. Conversely, when the researchers injected a virus engineered to produce a protein that dampens the cells’ activity under exposure to light, the mice foraged less, even if they were very hungry.
“Mice show compulsive eating in the presence of aversive direct consequences when this circuit is active, and don’t search for food even if they’re hungry when it’s not active. This circuit can circumvent the normal hunger pressures of how, what and when to eat,” said Fernando Reis, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher who did most of the experiments in the paper and came up with the idea to study compulsive eating. “We’re doing new experiments based on these findings and learning that these cells induce eating of fatty and sugary foods, but not of vegetables in mice, suggesting this circuit may increase eating of junk food.”
Like mice, humans also possess vgat PAG cells in the brainstem. It could be that if this circuit is overactive in a person, they might feel more rewarded by eating or crave food when not hungry. Conversely, if this circuit is not active enough, they could have less pleasure associated with eating, potentially contributing to anorexia. If found in humans, the food-seeking circuit could become the treatment target for some kinds of eating disorders.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
Accra, April 19, 2024. The guide warned us: the history of Cape Coast – 150 km from Accra – is sad and revolting; we must be strong to bear it psychologically! This fortress built in the 17th century by the English received a visit from some 250 delegates to the Global Christian Forum (GFM)
We visit the underground passages, some without skylights, where slaves in transit to the Americas were crowded. What a contrast with the governor’s large room with nine windows and his bright bedroom with five windows! Above these dark places, an Anglican church built by the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel”. “Where hallelujah was sung, while the slaves shouted their suffering below,” explains our guide!
Most troubling is the religious justification for slavery. In addition to the fortress church and the Methodist cathedral a few hundred meters away, here is this inscription in Dutch at the top of a door, in another fortress located not far from ours, shown to me by a participant who visited it: “The Lord chose Zion, he desired to make it his habitation” What did the person who wrote this quote from Psalm 132, verse 12 meant? Another door has the inscription “door of no return”: taken to the colonies, the slaves lost everything: their identity, their culture, their dignity!
To mark 300 years since the construction of this fortress, the African Genesis Institute placed a commemorative plaque with this quote from a passage from the book of Genesis: “(God) said to Abram: Know that your descendants will sojourn as immigrants in a country that is not theirs; they will be slaves there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will judge the nation whose slaves they have been, and then they will come out with great possessions.” (15.13-14)
In the Cape Coast Methodist Cathedral
The question that was on my mind when entering this contemporary cathedral of the slave trade was asked by Casely Essamuah, the general secretary of the GFM: “where do these horrors continue today? »
A “prayer of lament and reconciliation” is then led in the presence of the local Methodist bishop. This verse from Psalm 130 sets the tone for the celebration: “From the depths we cry out to you. Lord, hear my voice” (v.1). The preaching is delivered by Rev. Merlyn Hyde Riley of the Jamaica Baptist Union and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches central committee. She identifies as a “descendant of slave parents.” Based on the book of Job, she shows that Job protests against slavery, with the defense of human dignity as a fundamental principle, against all odds. The inexcusable cannot be excused, nor the unjustifiable justified. “We have to recognize our failures and lament like Job, and reaffirm our common humanity, created in the image of God,” she said.
Next, Setri Nyomi, acting general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, with two other delegates from Reformed churches, recalled the Accra Confession published in 2004, which denounced Christian complicity in injustice. “This complicity continues and calls us to repentance today.”
As for Rosemarie Wenner, German Methodist bishop, she recalls that Wesley took a position against slavery. However, the Methodists compromised and justified it. Forgiveness, repentance and restoration are necessary: “The Holy Spirit leads us not only to repentance but also to reparation,” she specifies.
The celebration was punctuated by songs, including the very moving “Oh freedom”, composed by a slave from the cotton plantations in America:
Oh Oh Freedom / Oh Oh Freedom over me But before I’d be a slave / I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord and be free
Echoes from the visit to Cape Coast
This visit marked the meeting of the GCF. Several speakers subsequently expressed the impression it made on them. Mons Flávio Pace, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (Vatican), relates that during Holy Week he prayed in the place where Jesus was locked up, under the church of S. Peter in Gallicante, in Jerusalem, with Psalm 88: “You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths”. (v. 6). He thought of this psalm in the slave fortress. “We must work together against all forms of slavery, bear witness to the reality of God and bring the reconciling power of the Gospel,” he said.
Meditating on the “voice of the good shepherd” (John 10), Lawrence Kochendorfer, Lutheran bishop in Canada, said: “We have witnessed the horrors of Cape Coast. We heard the cries of the slaves. Today, there are new forms of slavery where other voices cry out. In Canada, tens of thousands of Indians were taken from their families to religious residential schools.
The day after this unforgettable visit, Esmé Bowers of the World Evangelical Alliance woke up with a heartfelt song on her lips, written by a slave ship captain: “Amazing Grace.” He became an ardent fighter against slavery.
What most touched Michel Chamoun, Syriac Orthodox bishop in Lebanon, during these days of the Forum, was this question: “How was it possible to justify this great sin of slavery? » Every slave is a human being with the right to live with dignity and destined for eternal life through faith in Jesus. God’s will is that we all be saved. But there is also another form of slavery: being a prisoner of your own sin. “Refusing to seek forgiveness from Jesus puts you in a terrible situation because it has eternal consequences,” he says.
Daniel Okoh, of the organization of established African Churches, sees in the love of money the root of slavery, as of all iniquity. If we can understand this, we can ask for forgiveness and reconcile.
For Indian evangelical theologian Richard Howell, the enduring caste system in India leads us to forcefully reaffirm the truth of human beings created in the image of God, according to the first chapter of Genesis. No discrimination is then possible. This is what he thought about when visiting Cape Coast.
Dear readers, as we have been urged to recount what we saw in this horrible place and then experienced in the Cape Cost Cathedral, I have delivered to you this significant moment of the fourth global meeting of the Christian Forum, with the reflections that he aroused.
The UN-backed $3.24 billion humanitarian response plan for 2024 is only five per cent funded.
Organised by the UN along with the Governments of Ethiopia and the United Kingdom, the conference aims to hear commitments that will enhance life-saving aid to approximately 15.5 million people in 2024. An immediate funding of $1 billion is required to sustain aid delivery for the next five months.
The crisis has escalated due to recurring cycles of droughts, floods, and conflict. Food insecurity and malnutrition are anticipated to affect 10.8 million people during the lean season from July to September.
Around 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes, raising concerns about public health and protection services. The El Niño phenomenon has worsened drought conditions in the northern highlands, leading to decreased water availability, parched pastures, and reduced harvests.
Malnutrition rates in many areas including Afar, Amhara, and Tigray continue to worsen, highlighting the critical need for funding.
“Conflicts have destroyed thousands of schools, health facilities, water systems and other community infrastructure. And that adds to the difficulty,” said Ramiz Alakbarov, UN’s Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ethiopia, adding that security and safety of humanitarian workers is still an issue in “many parts of Ethiopia”.
The Ethiopian government has recently endorsed a new national policy for disaster risk management and committed $250 million for food support in the coming months. Additionally, regional governments and the country’s private sector have allocated further domestic resources for emergency response.
Strength in numbers
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, closed the event with an Amharic proverb that translates as “when spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”.
“It suggests that when people come together, as we have done this afternoon, we can accomplish formidable tasks and overcome great challenges”, she added.
She praised the 21 cash pledges led by the United States which promised $253 million, and the UK with $125 million, saying it showed “the power of unity and collective effort in achieving shared goals” on behalf of the Ethiopian people.
WHO ‘cannot continue’ work without cash injection
Speaking for the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Mike Ryan told the conference a cholera outbreak was now in its 20th month with over 41,000 cases, and malaria cases are already over 1.1 million for the year.
These outbreaks are occurring where millions of people lack access to essential health services with drought and flooding make the situation even worse.
“WHO and our health partners are on the ground, providing life-saving health services”, he said, adding that “without urgent funding we cannot continue.
“So far this year, we have received only four per cent of the $187 million needed to keep operations going.”
Russia has instilled a pervasive climat of fear in the occupied areas of Ukraine, perpetrating egregious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws in an attempt to cement its control, according to a new report from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, released on Wednesday.
Based on over 2,300 testimonies from victims and witnesses, the report details measures taken by Russia to impose Russian language, citizenship, laws, court system and education curricula in the occupied areas, while at the same time suppressing expressions of Ukrainian culture and identity, and dismantling its governance and administrative systems.
“The actions of the Russian Federation have ruptured the social fabric of communities and left individuals isolated, with profound and long-lasting consequences for Ukrainian society as a whole,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Although the Russian Federation initiated its annexation of Ukrainian territory in Crimea in 2014, the report concentrates on the aftermath of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Widespread violations
Russian armed forces, operating with “generalized impunity”, committed widespread violations, including arbitrary detentions often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment, sometimes culminating in enforced disappearances.
“While Russian armed forces initially targeted individuals perceived as posing a security threat, over time a wider net was cast broadly to include any person perceived to oppose the occupation,” OHCHR said in a news release accompanying the report.
Peaceful protests were suppressed, free expression curtailed and residents’ movements severely restricted, it added, noting also that homes and businesses were pillaged and Ukrainian internet and communication networks were shut down, severing ties with independent news sources and isolating the population.
“People were encouraged to inform on one another, leaving them afraid even of their own friends and neighbours.”
Children worst affected
According to the report, children bore the brunt of the impact, with Ukrainian curricula replaced by Russian curriculum in many schools and introduced textbooks with narratives seeking to justify the armed attack on Ukraine.
Russia also enlisted children into youth groups to inculcate Russian expression of patriotism.
The report added that residents of occupied areas were coerced into taking Russian passports. Those who refused were singled out, facing harsher restrictions on their movement, and were progressively denied employment in the public sector, access to healthcare and social security benefits.
A landmine warning sign behind a fence of a destroyed house in Posad-Pokrovske in the Kherson region of Ukraine. (file)
Collapsed local economy
The report also detailed the situation in areas recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, including Mykolaiv and parts of Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
“The invasion, occupation and subsequent recapture by Ukraine of these areas left behind damaged homes and infrastructure, land contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war, pillaged resources, a collapsed local economy and a traumatized, mistrustful community,” the report said.
It added that the Ukrainian Government faced the challenge of rebuilding and restoring services in these areas, while having to contend with legacies of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law during the occupation.
‘Overly broad’ Ukrainian legal provision
The report also expressed concern that an “overly broad and imprecise provision” of the Ukrainian Criminal Code led to people being prosecuted under charges of collaboration with the occupying authorities for actions that can be lawfully compelled by the occupying authorities under international humanitarian law, such as work to ensure essential services.
“Such prosecutions have tragically led to some people being victimized twice – first under the Russian occupation and then again when they are prosecuted for collaboration,” High Commissioner Türk cautioned, urging Ukraine to revise its approach to such prosecutions.
He further reiterated his call on Russia to immediately cease its armed attack against Ukraine and withdraw to internationally recognized borders, in line with the relevant UN General Assembly resolutions and international law.
