Approaching COP 26 – Faith organisations are joining the call for prayer, reflection and action directed to the forthcoming Climate Change Conference in Glasgow October – November 2021. An online webinar organised by the Interfaith Liaison Committee (ILC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held on Monday 27 September.
Faiths for Earth
Care of Our Common Home
Care of Our Common Home is an online Prayer Service. This is a Ecumenical Prayer Service in prayerful preparation for global environmental talks: From Season of Creation to COP 26.
Faith and Science: An Appeal for COP26
On 4 October 2021, faith leaders representing the world’s major religions joined scientists at the Vatican to call on the international community to raise their ambition and step up their climate action ahead of COP26. Almost 40 faith leaders signed a joint Appeal, which was presented by Pope Francis to COP26 President-Designate, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma, and the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Luigi Di Maio.
Global religious leaders, scientists join to release “Faith and Science: An Appeal for COP26”
Global religious leaders and leading scientists issued a joint statement on 4 October calling on the international community to raise their ambition and step up their climate action ahead of the forthcoming climate change conference in Glasgow, commencing 31 October.
Care for Environment – Buddhism
A major aim of Buddhism is to relieve suffering, the root causes of which are greed, ignorance, and hatred. The monks see the destruction of the forests, pollution of the air and water, and other environmental problems as ultimately caused by people acting through these evils, motivated by economic gain and the material benefits of development, industrialization, and consumerism. As monks, they believe it is their duty to take action against these evils.
Glasgow Multifaith Declaration on Climate Change
Faith leaders from the United Kingdom and Scotland have come together to publish the Glasgow Multifaith Declaration in which they commit to reflection, prayer, meditation, and worship to reflect on how to tackle the climate crisis.
Conference: Interfaith call for Ecocide Law
Faith for Ecocide Law is creating an interreligious coalition in support of an international crime of Ecocide within the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court.
Humanity is at the crossroads, and faith communities have a unique voice for the reverence for Mother Earth/the Creation, and the existential understanding of the relationship between humans and nature. Faith for Ecocide Law aims at raising this voice in support of new rules for the protection of Nature at a global scale.
End Ecocide Sweden in cooperation with Stop Ecocide Foundation, Christian Council of Sweden, The Catholic Diocese of Stockholm, Sigtuna Foundation and Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University will host an Interfaith Conference -Interfaith call for Ecocide Law September 16, 9-12 CET (eastern hemisphere), 16-19 CET (western hemisphere). ONLINE
Joint statement on climate change by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch
Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Archbishop of Canterbury join together for the first time in urgent appeal for the future of the planet. For the first time, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion have jointly warned of the urgency of environmental sustainability, its impact on poverty, and the importance of global cooperation.
Align your finances with your faith – Superannuation Divestment Workshop
The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change is running a session on aligning your finances with your faith. Do you have UniSuper? Are you with NGS, Catholic Super or ACSRF? Or just want to know more about aligning your finances with your faith to protect the planet? The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change is presenting an information session via zoom on September 9th.
Care for Environment – The Jain religion
The Jain ecological philosophy is virtually synonymous with the principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) which runs through the tradition like a golden thread. Ahimsa is a principle that Jains teach and practice not only towards human beings but towards all nature. It is an unequivocal teaching that is at once ancient and contemporary.
Resilience in a Riskier World
COVID-19 has demonstrated yet again how all disaster risks interconnect – how a public health crisis can rapidly trigger an economic disaster and societal upheaval.
Rather than regarding the human and economic costs as inevitable, countries would do far better to make their populations and infrastructure more resilient.
The annual cost of adaptation for natural and other biological hazards under the worst-case climate change scenario is estimated at USD270 billion, which could be financed through new, innovative sources such as climate resilience bonds, debt-for-resilience swaps, and debt relief initiatives.
Climate Change: The future is in our hands, for our children’s children’s children
“As people of faith, we need to know, in detail, how our Federal Government and Opposition will respond to this Report with appropriate policies and budgeting” says Bishop Philip Huggins, President of National Council of Churches in Australia and Patron of Australian Religious Response to Climate Change.
As UN releases climate change report, “the signs of the times have never been clearer” …
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body of scientists set up by the United Nations, confirms that human-induced climate change is accelerating and is fundamentally changing our only planetary home. The report finds that we are precariously close to surpassing the relatively safe limit of 1.5°C global temperature rise—in under two decades—with increasingly disastrous consequences. “The signs of the times have never been clearer,” say the World Council of Churches. “The report is a major alarm bell.”
Care for Environment: Hinduism
Whereas hurmans – men and women – pray to the gods and make supplications, offerings and sacrifices to these gods, in Hinduism, the Earth itself is one of the gods – She is One Goddess with many names – Mother Earth, Bhu-devi, Bhumi-devi, Prithvi, Mother Nature. Hence, the Earth is sacred, Nature is sacred and all who live upon her are obliged to make sacrifice and live in harmony with the Earth and all its creatures. This includes mineral life, plant life, animal life and all that exists in the wind, the waters, the heat and the soil.
South Australia: Why Faith?
The Women’s Auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Australia conducted an interfaith webinar, “Why Faith?” on 24th of July 2021. Vice chair of Religions for Peace Australia and President of the Multifaith Association of South Australia – Ms Philippa Rowland – participated in this event. Her contribution includes the interconnectedness of all things, the care of the Earth and the need to help guide our global family in the right direction.
No Sustainable Development Without an Environment of Peace
“There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development”. This is one of the most memorable phrases in the Preamble of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. But does its second half get the attention, and the analysis, it deserves?
Care for Environment: The Bahá’í faith
For Bahá’ís the goal of existence is to carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation. Such a civilisation can only be built on an earth that can sustain itself. The Bahá’í commitment to the environment is fundamental to our Faith.
Religions for Peace World Council Statement on World Rainforest Day
Religions for Peace World Council gives one statement in support of the Amazon and its Indigenous Peoples on the occasion of the World Rainforest Day. The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative – which Religions for Peace fosters – is a pathway to a balanced future for our Earth – the only Earth we have. You are invited to read this statement.
