The forum’s opening march was postponed for reasons organizers described as beyond their control. The week began with what Rev. Tegwende Leonard Kinda, of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa in Burkina Faso (FECCIWA), a former WCC central committee member, called “a turbulent start” before dialogue resumed.
The WCC mission’s programme continued as planned. Five side events, Land Justice Now, Water for Life, Faith in Action, Fiscal Justice for Food Systems, and Coalition Building, were convened with FECCIWA. Rev. Michael Tete, general secretary of FECCIWA, led the West Africa mission, with support from Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food.
What delegates …
The forum’s opening march was postponed for reasons organizers described as beyond their control. The week began with what Rev. Tegwende Leonard Kinda, of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa in Burkina Faso (FECCIWA), a former WCC central committee member, called “a turbulent start” before dialogue resumed.
The WCC mission’s programme continued as planned. Five side events, Land Justice Now, Water for Life, Faith in Action, Fiscal Justice for Food Systems, and Coalition Building, were convened with FECCIWA. Rev. Michael Tete, general secretary of FECCIWA, led the West Africa mission, with support from Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food.
What delegates carried home from the sessions mattered as much as the sessions themselves.
“The forum was not merely a conference but a movement-building moment,” said Nkechi Oseni, programme coordinator at the Christian Council of Nigeria, who travelled to Cotonou as part of the WCC mission. “I return with a renewed mindset that another world is possible and that faith communities, when rooted in justice and solidarity, can be catalysts for that transformation.”
Kinda framed the forum as a call to translate conviction into practice. “The vision promoted by the World Social Forum is one of hope . . . based more firmly on justice, dignity, solidarity, peace, and respect for creation,” he said. “I commit myself, as a citizen, a believer, and a religious leader, to contributing, within my sphere of influence, to this transformation.”
Mercy Olaoluwa Olatayo, of Palmira FarmTrade in Nigeria, said the sessions on land and water justice left her with one conviction: that the different justices at stake are inseparable. “Land justice is tied to dignity, water justice to peace, climate resilience to survival, and faith to the courage to act,” she said. “I came away believing that knowledge has little value if it never leaves the conference room, and that faith has little force if it never becomes action.”
The mission’s five side events fed into a joint statement on land, water, and food justice in West Africa, drafted with participants’ input across the week. For Kinda, Oseni, Olatayo, and the rest of the group, the return journey was where the forum’s slogan met its test: whether conviction becomes action.
Advocacy continues under the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034), with a small mission next representing the WCC at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17-28 August.