Conference to Focus on Role of Religion in Combating Climate Change

An upcom­ing inter­na­tional, inter­dis­ci­pli­nary con­fer­ence on sus­tain­abil­ity and cli­mate change will be hosted by the Lutheran World Federation, in Bergen, Norway.

Although not directed at resolv­ing spe­cific reli­gious or cul­tural con­flicts that might impact agri­cul­tural indus­tries, par­tic­i­pat­ing speak­ers come from parts of the world — for exam­ple, Palestine and Israel — where the health of indus­tries such as olive grow­ing is inter­twined with reli­gious, cul­tural and polit­i­cal dif­fer­ences.

The Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, for exam­ple, main­tains its own olive farm of 800 trees and depends partly from sales of olive oil to sup­port the hos­pi­tal.

While the olive trees were not report­edly threat­ened or harmed, the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) reported back in October that Israeli sol­diers and police offi­cers ​“stormed” the hos­pi­tal and searched the can­cer ward for weapons.

The IMEMC, a Palestinian news orga­ni­za­tion that works with inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists through­out the region, also described the sol­diers and police who searched the hos­pi­tal as ​“heav­ily armed and armored.”

Accounts such as this demon­strate that mat­ters relat­ing to health­care, agri­cul­ture, cul­ture and pol­i­tics may be unavoid­ably con­nected. They also sug­gest an unspo­ken, sub­text of the upcom­ing con­fer­ence.

“Through the data and expe­ri­ence shared by par­tic­i­pants, the con­fer­ence aims to pro­vide new knowl­edge and inspire com­mit­ment among peo­ple who see a crit­i­cal role for reli­gion and belief in deep­en­ing reflec­tion and action on sus­tain­abil­ity and the cli­mate,” the Lutheran World Federation said on its web­site.

Topics slated for dis­cus­sion include eco-the­ol­ogy and envi­ron­men­tal ethics. Spokespeople for the con­fer­ence are empha­siz­ing an inter­faith com­mit­ment to reli­gious ideals relat­ing to the man­age­ment of sus­tain­abil­ity and cli­mate change.

“There is a grow­ing global con­sen­sus about the need to pro­mote envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion across mul­ti­ple sec­tors in order to curb the root causes of cli­mate change,” Reverend Chad Rimmer, a pro­gram exec­u­tive at the Lutheran World Federation, said. ​“Religious tra­di­tions have a rich and sig­nif­i­cant voice to con­tribute a faith per­spec­tive to this inter­dis­ci­pli­nary con­ver­sa­tion.”

He empha­sized that find­ing com­mon ground is a key goal for con­fer­ence orga­niz­ers.

“The Lutheran World Federation is co-spon­sor­ing this con­fer­ence that will bring the­olo­gians and edu­ca­tors of dif­fer­ent faith tra­di­tions into dia­logue with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from other sec­tors of civil soci­ety in order to con­sider best prac­tices for find­ing com­mon ground in the effort to teach this gen­er­a­tion about the impor­tance of car­ing for the earth,” he said.

“Our faith in God’s love for life gives us hope that our gen­er­a­tion can dis­cern effec­tive path­ways to restor­ing out a right, sus­tain­able rela­tion­ship to the earth and all crea­tures,” he added.

Apart from reli­gion, top­ics such as how sus­tain­abil­ity and cli­mate change edu­ca­tion can be best inte­grated within pub­lic school pro­gram­ming will also be addressed at the con­fer­ence, which runs from February 12 to 14.

The Lutheran World Federation is co-spon­sor­ing the event with the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Bergen Campus), the Church of Norway and the Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities in Norway in coop­er­a­tion with the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Morocco.

• International Middle East Media Center


• Lutheran World Federation