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February 20, 2008

Be creative in sound ecological behavior quest, churches urged

by Jerry Van Marter
Ecumenical News International

GENEVA — Churches need to develop creative ways of practicing ecologically respectful behavior and to share it with one another, the World Council of Churches has said.

The statement was issued by the WCC’s main governing body, its central committee, on Feb. 19. It renewed its call to churches and other religious institutions to take dramatic steps to combat global climate change, including a special emphasis on stewardship of creation on Sept. 1 every year.

In a statement entitled “Be stewards of God’s creation,” the WCC’s main governing body, its central committee, said, “The current unsustainable production and consumption patterns have caused tremendous negative effects in the environment and generated what has been called an ecological debt towards humanity and the earth.”

Ecological debt refers to the losses to the countries of the global South due to historical and current resource plundering, environmental degradation and the discharge of greenhouse gases and toxic wastes by industrialized countries of the North.

“Many global financial creditors are at the same time ecological debtors,” the central committee said in a companion statement. This referred to the effects not just of climate change but of deforestation, desertification, air and water pollution and the extinction of many animal and plant species.

To overcome that debt, it called on member churches to develop and share with each other “creative ways of practicing ecologically respectful relationships within the human community and with the earth.” It urged the sharing of knowledge and technological innovations that are more environmentally friendly and the monitoring of “ecological footprints” so churches can take specific steps to reduce climate change and global warming.

The statement also asked theological schools to teach stewardship of creation “in order to deepen the ethical and theological understanding of the causes of global warming and climate change and of the sustainable lifestyle that is needed as a response.”

The statement builds on previous WCC activities related to climate change, particularly a statement issued by the WCC’s executive committee in September 2007 on the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, the international framework on climate change. The United States has not yet signed the agreement, which was updated in December 2007 with a new set of UN-brokered commitments to cover the post-2012 period. Those commitments are scheduled to be finalized by the end of 2009.

The WCC tied its statement to its Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010) program and to an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation it has scheduled to conclude the decade in 2011. “The theme of the convocation, ‘Glory to God and Peace on Earth,’ highlights peace on earth.” It should include “peace with the earth as well as peace among human beings,” the statement said.