10/05/2026
Our New York team spent UNGA81 High-Level Week in prayer and partnership, building stronger ties across the faith community at the United Nations.
WEA Secretary General Rev. Botrus Mansour opened our week by leading a prayer at World Vision International's 8th Annual Prayer Service for Children: A Moment of Hope, held at Tillman Chapel in the Church Center for the United Nations the day before the General Debate began. He prayed for children facing war, hunger and displacement, and asked God to "reverse the tide."
At UNICEF's Every Child Is Our Child: A Moral Call to Invest in the Next Generation, faith leaders and youth advocates joined philanthropists, business leaders and policymakers to make the case for investing in children's health. WEA Senior Advisor Christine MacMillan spoke in her role as a UNICEF Faith Leadership Circle Envoy and urged participants to commit to concrete action to protect children.
In addition, the team held one-on-one meetings with faith-based and other civil society organizations. These meetings strengthened our partnerships and strategically planned collaborative meetings to foster deeper engagement in the Sustainable Development Goals. WEA joined Church World Service and 18 other faith-based organizations in signing a joint statement for the 75th anniversary year of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The statement urges all States to reaffirm their commitment to the Convention and to keep human dignity and protection at the center of their response to forced displacement. Read it here: https://loom.ly/9s7q-SU
Our delegation included Dr. Jason Pope, Acting Permanent Representative to the UN in New York; Christine MacMillan, Senior Advisor; Karen Chong, Director of Partnerships; and Christina Bruff, Director of Diplomatic Relations. The team took part in dialogues on ending violence against women and girls and on strengthening adherence to the Refugee Convention, and sat down with colleagues from World Vision and Church World Service to look for ways to work together.
