Charissa Suli Leads COP31 Prayer for Pacific Islands Today

On the first morning of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, Uniting Church in Australia President Rev Charissa Suli prayed that what is shared inside the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion would carry well beyond its walls. She led morning devotions and blessed the pavilion on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, asking that it be a place of welcome, wisdom, and courageous conversation.

The sea is rising around the homes of the people she prayed for. In Tuvalu, in Fiji, in villages where the fresh water turns salty and the land of their ancestors slips a little further under the waves each year, the climate crisis is not a policy debate. It is the view from the front door.

That is why a prayer at a climate conference matters, and why it matters that a Pacific woman led it. The people who contributed least to the warming of the planet are the ones bearing its heaviest burdens, and on the first morning of COP31, their churches made sure the negotiators heard that truth before a single deal was discussed.

Pacific prayer opens COP31 in Antalya

At the invitation of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Rev Suli led the morning devotions and blessed the pavilion. She prayed that the stories told and the commitments made there would help shape decisions that honour the dignity and futures of Pacific peoples.

Rev Mata Havea Hiliau opened the pavilion, drawing on Scripture as she led a reflection and prayer. She spoke of the shared responsibility to care for God's creation and one another, and she called for climate commitments to be put into action, not left as promises on paper.

Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, spoke at the same gathering about keeping Pacific voices central to the negotiations, pursuing the 1.5°C goal, recognising the connection between oceans and climate change, and improving access to climate finance for Pacific island nations.

The pavilion is called Moana Blue, and its name carries the point. Moana means ocean, and the ocean is both the life and the threat of the Pacific. The same water that feeds families and carries their canoes is the water that is swallowing their shores, and the people who live with that paradox every day are the ones the world most needs to hear.

From Funafuti and Nadi to Antalya

The prayer in Antalya did not come out of nowhere. In September, Rev Suli joined Pacific women leaders in Funafuti, Tuvalu, for the Tuākoi Lei regional gathering on faith, gender, and climate. A month later, she joined Pacific church leaders at the ecumenical service marking the start of Pre-COP31 in Nadi, Fiji.

At those gatherings, Pacific church leaders called for an end to fossil fuel expansion, accountability for climate loss and damage, and grants that reach communities directly instead of stopping in distant offices. Those calls give substance to the prayer offered in Antalya, and they turn a devotional moment into a set of demands.

The Uniting Church's engagement at COP31 is part of a wider Christian witness that includes the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, and ACT Alliance, alongside partners from other faith traditions. The Anglican Communion has sent a delegation too, promoting its "Lungs of the Earth" initiative and urging governments to keep their promises on climate finance.

Christians around the world are praying with them. Tearfund has asked its supporters to pray for smallholder farmers, for Christians and the Church to lead in caring for creation, and for leaders to find the wisdom and courage to speak truth to power. Green Christian is meeting on Zoom for ten minutes at 8 a.m. every morning of COP31, and interfaith groups are offering prayers and meditations throughout the two weeks, as Assisi Peace Gathering Today: 384 Faith Leaders Meet as Pope Leo XIV Sends Message October 2026 showed when faith leaders gathered for peace only weeks ago.

What Pacific Christians are asking for

The asks are plain, and they have not changed. Keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive. Turn away from dependence on fossil fuels. Provide fair and accessible climate finance for communities facing loss and damage. End fossil fuel expansion. Let the grants reach the villages, not just the capitals.

Rev Suli's own prayer, shared before the conference, names what is at stake: the Pacific, where rising seas threaten homes, fresh water, and the lands of our ancestors. She prayed especially for Pacific neighbours whose voices have called the world to act with urgency and justice, and for leaders gathered at COP31 to find the courage to move beyond promises to meaningful action.

The numbers behind the prayer are stark. COP31 runs from November 9 to 20, 2026, and it is the moment when governments present new national action plans and report on the finance pledges made at COP30. The second Global Stocktake begins here too, measuring how far the world has come since the Paris Agreement and how far it still has to go.

For the island nations, the stocktake is not an abstract exercise. It is a measurement of whether their homes will still exist when their grandchildren grow up, and whether the world kept its word or only kept talking, a question that echoes the prayer gatherings that have carried this cause, like the thousands who joined in Seoul, as 26,000 Join Seoul Prayer Rally for CGI 50th reported.

Why prayer belongs at a climate summit

Some will ask what a blessing can do at a United Nations conference, where the real work is done in negotiating rooms and the real currency is money and megawatts. The answer is that the Pacific churches have never believed prayer and action are seperate things.

A pavilion blessed in the morning is a pavilion where hard truths get told in the afternoon. A delegation that prays together negotiates differently, because it remembers who it is speaking for. And a world that watches a Pacific woman pray for her neighbours' homes is a world that finds it harder to look away when the talks get difficult.

As negotiations continue in Antalya, the Uniting Church has invited Christians everywhere to pray for those carrying this work, including the Pacific negotiators bringing the priorities of their communities to the table. The prayer that opened COP31 was not the end of the Church's part in it. It was the beginning, and the question it leaves behind is the one the negotiators will have to answer in the days ahead: when the talks end and the pavilion is packed away, will the promises made inside it survive the journey home? The Pacific is waiting for the answer, and the tide is not waiting with it.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.