From November 10–21, world leaders, civil society, Indigenous peoples, grassroots movements and others will gather at the COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, to advance action on addressing the climate emergency. Delegates from The United Church of Canada will be attending as part of the KAIROS delegation.
Together with fellow members of For the Love of Creation, The United Church of Canada invites groups to host candlelight vigils in their own communities on the weekend of November 14–16, 2025.
There is much reason to gather, pray, and witness.
Despite increasing evidence of the climate emergency and compounding threats to democracy, environmental, and human rights, leaders across the world and particularly in Canada are failing to take the decisive action needed to protect our world, and particularly the most vulnerable members of the global community. Canada has yet to reduce our national emissions, and our government continues to approve and subsidize new fossil fuel infrastructure; most recently, it violated Indigenous rights and environmental protections by pushing through Bill C-5.
Meanwhile, the global debt crisis is compounding climate impacts in the Global South where countries are spending more on interest payments than on health, education, and climate adaptation. Wealthy and high-emitting countries like Canada have a responsibility to do their fair share by reducing our emissions faster and providing robust financing to support the transition to clean energy in the Global South.
You can read more, find prayers, and see vigil locations on the For the Love of Creation webpage. At your event, have the Jubilee 2025 petition available for signing.
You can use this opportunity to draw attention to local and regional concerns regarding climate change, and national and global ones too.
Let us join together, act, and pray that the voices of the people most affected by climate change and those most marginalized from the conversations at COP30 are heard, movements strengthened, and commitments implemented.
Additional worship and prayer resources are available on our Climate Change Worship page. Please post invitations to join your vigil and photos of your vigil on social media using the hashtags #UCCan.