Faith and the Environment

The MultiFaith Action Society and Langara College Continuing Studies are co hosting a conference “Faith and the Environment” [FATE] at the Langara campus by invitation to the leaders of Vancouver's faith communities. This event will be an historic meeting of the leaders of Vancouver’s major religions to consider their role in addressing the environmental issues facing British Columbians.

The occasion has the following goals:
• Explore the implications of the climate crisis for religious communities in BC
• Identify areas of common interest and common action to address the issues.
• Share “best practices” for reducing “ecological footprints” in sacred spaces
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Program highlights include:

• Background on the environmental issues facing British Columbia in the next decades.
• Roundtable discussion with Premier and the Climate Action Secretariat on new policies.
• Workshops on efforts to reduce human impact on natural processes and restore damage.
• Forum discussion of public policies and the role of religious communities and their leaders

The success of this event will depend to a large extent on the level of participation from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and 1st Nations faith communities from the lower mainland. One challenge has been to identify what constitutes “leadership” in the context of an environmental crisis.

Scientists and activists have been raising alarms about the human impact on natural ecosystems for years. Some have warned that the “10 year” window of opportunity for avoiding the serious consequences of green house gas emissions has passed. In the last decade much more attention was paid to these warnings but little has been done to change the patterns of personal and collective behaviour that give rise to these problems. In the past it was the role of religious prophets to warn of impending catastrophes but today it is international panels of scientists, economists and media that enumerate a litany of woes. For much of the 20th century there has been some tension between religion and science – “naturalism” is still suspect among traditionalists. The concept of our “stewardship” of creation runs counter to modern ideas of “progress” and the exploitation of resources according to a market-driven bottom line. The sacred qualities of nature and the organic interrelationships of complex ecosystems are accommodated within some belief systems more easily than others. Religions often struggle to overcome their historic ethnocentric orientations - asking them to address “all my relations” is perhaps more difficult than that “one large step” onto the surface of the moon. The iconic images of Earth rising over the moon’s horizon, however, remind the human family that we share one fragile planet bathed in one oceanic system and one thin film of atmosphere to sustain the myriad forms of life just beginning to be catalogued by their thin strands of DNA. As the polar ice sheets melt, the deserts advance, rain forests and countless species disappear it is time to reach back into the depth of our wisdom traditions to re-establish our connection to the forces that gave rise to our existence and the existence of “all creatures great and small.” Reflections on how we see the world may help but it will fail if nothing flows from those reflections. We need to act from the core of our beliefs. It matters what we pass on to a “sustainable” future. In the best of the world’s wisdom there is a call to act toward a higher purpose out of love and gratitude for what was given to us in the succession of generations – we need to pass that on.

Comments

[William Carson]

Nice art....