Tag: Environment

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News & Announcements

WCC announces September Interfaith Summit on Climate Change

The World Council of Churches (WCC) announced it will hold an Interfaith Summit on Climate Change on September 21-22 in New York City. At the summit, organised together with Religions for Peace, more than 30 religious leaders will take a united stand to encourage international and political leaders to address concretely the causes and consequences of climate change.

The interfaith summit is being held immediately before the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit, called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, to galvanize and catalyze climate action, bringing bold announcements and actions that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement in 2015.

WCC members said they hoped their united voice would be also heard at the upcoming Conferences of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lima in December 2014 and in Paris in 2015.

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News & Announcements

Chief governing body of the WCC begins its first meeting

Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary. Photo: Peter Williams WCC

The first full meeting of the new Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a chief governing body of the Council, began on 2 July in Geneva, Switzerland. Prayers, official addresses from the leadership of the WCC and welcome greetings from the Swiss churches marked the opening of the WCC Central Committee meeting – all set to focus on the theme ‘pilgrimage of justice and peace’ through the coming week.

The WCC Central Committee will hold meetings every two years until the next assembly. The committee which consists of 150 members from all global regions is responsible for carrying out the policies adopted by the WCC 10th Assembly, reviewing and supervising WCC programs and the budget of the Council. The 10th Assembly took place at Busan, Republic of Korea in October and November 2013.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Collective climate action

Rev Dr Jason John

Rev Dr Jason John has devoted his life to environmental issues with university degrees in zoology and environmental studies. Add in an ordination and you  have a ministry with a passion to care for creation.

With a PhD in evolution, ecology and theology, Jason is well equipped as the keynote speaker at the upcoming God of Sea and Sky conference, this July. Eco-theology may sound like a  relatively new term to some, but Jason says the concept isn’t new – it’s just new to us as a culture born post-industrial revolution.

“Eco-theology, or eco-faith, is primarily the reminder that there are these very strong links between our relationship with our creator and our relationship with creation,” he said. “In  a sense, it’s not something new. It’s a reminder of something we’ve forgotten.”

There are plenty of references in the Bible to do with caring for creation, and many cultures – regardless of religion – did so for thousands of years. In our modern world, however, we  seem to have lost the way. It’s the creation story that Jason wants to shake up. He believes we have a new creation story: one where God is present throughout evolution and one  where humans, as we know them now, are not the end goal. In his book, Worshipping  Evolution’s God, Jason explains how science has taught us that life has existed billions of years  before us, and will exist for billions of years after we’re gone.

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Investing in a better future

Bill McKibbon (centre) founder of 350.org, on his recent tour in Australia. 350.org is an international campaign encouraging divestment in the coal industry. Bill congratulated the NSW/ACT Synod on their recent decision. Bill is shown here with Dr Miriam Pepper, Uniting Earthweb; Rev Dr Brian Brown, Moderator of the Uniting Church in NSW/ACT; Justin Whelan, mission development officer, Paddington Uniting Church and Rev Elenie Poulos, national director of UnitingJustice.
Bill McKibbon (centre) founder of 350.org, on his recent tour in Australia. 350.org is an international campaign encouraging divestment in the coal industry. Bill congratulated the NSW/ACT Synod on their recent decision. Bill is shown here with Dr Miriam Pepper, Uniting Earthweb; Rev Dr Brian Brown, Moderator of the Uniting Church in NSW/ACT; Justin Whelan, mission development officer, Paddington Uniting Church and Rev Elenie Poulos, national director of UnitingJustice.

At the last Synod meeting for the Uniting Church in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), a bold decision was made to divest in companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels (coal and coal seam gas) as they seek to invest, instead, in renewable energy. It was a big step for the Synod, and a decision that wasn’t taken lightly.

But what is ethical investing, and why should we be thinking about it?

When money is invested into an account, the financial institution’s role is to make the most out of it they can, by buying and selling shares – this is where ethics comes in. Without  doing the research, you could unknowingly be buying shares in companies involved in weapons, gambling or tobacco, just to name a few.

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