{"id":406,"date":"2021-09-10T19:37:30","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T19:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=406"},"modified":"2021-09-10T19:42:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T19:42:49","slug":"global-christian-leaders-joined-forces-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=406","title":{"rendered":"Global Christian leaders join forces on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published in The Guardian<\/a> September 2021

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. Global Christian leaders have joined forces to warn that the world is facing a critical moment as the climate crisis threatens the future of the planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an unprecedented joint declaration, Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox church, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who is the leader of the global Anglican communion, call on the world population \u2013 \u201cwhatever their beliefs or worldview\u201d \u2013 to \u201clisten to the cry of the Earth and of people who are poor\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their statement says: \u201cToday, we are paying the price [of the climate emergency] \u2026 Tomorrow could be worse.\u201d It concludes: \u201cThis is a critical moment. Our children\u2019s future and the future of our common home depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The faith leaders have asked people to pray for world leaders ahead of Cop26, the global environment summit in Glasgow this autumn, and for individuals to make \u201cmeaningful sacrifices for the sake of the planet, working together and taking responsibility for how we use our resources\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with \u201cfar-reaching responsibilities\u201d should lead the transition to just and sustainable economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said: \u201cWe stand before a harsh justice: biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change are the inevitable consequences of our actions, since we have greedily consumed more of the Earth\u2019s resources than the planet can endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we also face a profound injustice: the people bearing the most catastrophic consequences of these abuses are the poorest on the planet and have been the least responsible for causing them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is \u201calready witnessing the consequences of our refusal to protect and preserve [the planet]. Now, in this moment, we have an opportunity to repent, to turn around in resolve, to head in the opposite direction. We must pursue generosity and fairness in the ways that we live, work and use money, instead of selfish gain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the sake of today\u2019s children, \u201cwe must choose to eat, travel, spend, invest and live differently, thinking not only of immediate interest and gains but also of future benefits. We repent of our generation\u2019s sin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said this was the first time the three faith leaders \u201cfeel compelled to address together the urgency of environmental sustainability\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pope, who is planning to make a brief appearance at the Cop26 summit in November, has highlighted<\/a> the problem of climate breakdown and environmental sustainability since becoming pope in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, he issued a powerful encyclical, Laudato Si\u2019,<\/a> which emphasised overconsumption, corporate greed and individual responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in The Guardian September 2021 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. Global Christian leaders have joined forces to warn that the world is facing a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eco-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsj.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}