Many church and civil society representatives have expressed disappointment over the lack of vision and ambition in the outcomes of the Rio+20 summit. Yet the affirmation of the human right to water and sanitation is one aspect among others in the results that the future work of the ecumenical movement for sustainability and eco-justice can build on.

Raquel Kleber spent an intense week in June at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. In Rio, Kleber, an international affairs student, highlighted the accomplishments of “Criatitude”, a national educational project that encourages Lutheran Christians and others to use “creative attitudes” in promoting sustainability and eco-justice.

A Christian service of worship held beside a busy road in Jakarta is an unusual sight. However, the Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI) Taman Yasmin church was left with no choice.

Calle Almedal from Sweden has worked on issues of HIV since 1982. He is a former consultant for the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa of the WCC. In an interview he speaks about HIV's impact on communities, the importance of education in sexual health and churches' responses to HIV.

Bishop Moses Deng-Bol of Wau Diocese of the Episcopal Church in South Sudan, believes in a church that encourages forgiveness, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence. In a recent interview he shared how churches in his country are trying to address issues presented by the HIV pandemic.

To support the Colombian communities in Montes de María and San Onofre, faced with armed conflict and displacements, the national reference group of the Programme of Ecumenical Accompaniment in Colombia (PEAC) is planning the next steps in implementing the programme.

Inspired by participating in the Youth for Eco-Justice training, a joint project of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Durban, South Africa last year, Kristi Holmberg started a “Climate Justice Campaign” which concluded successfully on 22 April, Earth Day.

While drug production and trafficking are the main problems in Colombia, it would be misleading to think these are the only ones. Land grabs in the country serve as the pivotal reason behind armed conflicts and human rights violations. In this situation, churches in Colombia are struggling to support victims of land disputes, as well as raising awareness about the issue on local and international level.

Jessie Fubara-Manuel shares her views on violence, the HIV pandemic and struggles of women in churches to become part of the solution in Nigeria. She is a Presbyterian elder, a poet and a human resources consultant and has been involved with the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) programme.

After July, arms used to commit atrocities and serious crimes may become harder to buy, and harder to sell, internationally. That is if governments already agreed on the need to regulate the arms trade can agree on a treaty that is fit for the task and covers all conventional weapons.