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.
Faiths for Earth
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.
World Oceans Day
June 8 is International World Oceans Day, a UN observance. In this article, we look at the Law of the Sea, the Exclusive Economic Zone, sustainable practices regarding living aquatic resources, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Future of the Ocean Agenda, overfishing and Fish or Plastic for Lunch?
