World Council of Churches Mourns Environmental Advocate Killed in Ethiopian Airlines Crash

Pastor Norman Tendis, an environmental specialist with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and a priest of the Evangelical Church in Austria, was among the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crash on March 10, 2019. The aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, went down minutes after takeoff, prompting global grounding of this aircraft model.

Tendis was en route to attend the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, alongside other UN officials and environmental advocates, including a youth delegation from Canada. He served as the WCC’s Consultant for Economy of Life, helping churches invest sustainably to promote ecological justice. He was scheduled to present a new five-step “Roadmap for Congregations, Communities and Churches for an Economy of Life and Ecological Justice,” which the WCC has since launched in his honor.

WCC General Secretary Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit praised Tendis for his dedication to environmental justice, calling his death a significant loss for the church and the global ecological movement. Other religious leaders, including Professor Isabel Apawo Phiri and Austrian Bishop Dr. Michael Bünker, expressed deep sorrow and highlighted Tendis’s impact on local and international faith communities.

The UN Environment Assembly continued under a somber atmosphere, with interfaith prayers held for the victims. Anglican, Lutheran, and other global faith representatives attending the meeting reflected on Tendis’s legacy and reaffirmed commitments to ecological justice.

Dr. Tveit concluded that Tendis’s death represents a profound loss not only to his family and church but to the worldwide movement advocating for the care of creation.