EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Ten, Number Two January/February 2001 RELIGIOUS LEADERS PLEAD FOR CARE OF THE PLANET MEXICO CITY, MARCH 24 The Mexican Bishop's Conference released a Pastoral Letter titled Encounter with Jesus Christ for Solidarity with All. A brief excerpt, informally translated by Carlos Agnesi, follows: "The tension between two distant and contrasting worlds, in which one tries to absorb the other, represents the crisis that dampens our nation today. What is really needed is an urgent integration and interrelation founded in justice and acknowledgment of the rights of people, the diversity of ethnics and cultures, and respect for the environment." From Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation (fred@ecostewards.org) BOSTON, OCT. 4 Catholic bishops of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont issued a Pastoral Letter On the Moral Challenge of Preserving the Environment. The Bishops urge that economic development take into account the protection of natural resources from further destruction. The pastoral invites Catholics to join in public dialog about such issues as urban sprawl, loss of farmlands, forests and fisheries, and protection of the local food base. Parishes are urged to incorporate environmental themes in prayers, homilies and religious education. NEW YORK, NOV. 14 The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, said that pollution is a "sin against creation" and a sacrilege, in a speech at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. "According to Scripture, the wages of sin is death," he told the crowd. "At this point, this is confirmed from the everyday experience of the chain reactions of environmental destruction: changes in the climate, stripping the earth of its forests, torrential rainfalls, floods, mud slides. The consequence is death." See also this New York Times article. THE HAGUE, NOV. 20 Proclaiming global warming a religious issue, the heads of 28 Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations released a letter to President Clinton urging the Administration to complete the negotiations for a strong treaty. In the letter, the leaders assert that the Kyoto Protocol "is an important witness to God's redemption of creation and to the importance of protecting God's children and God's creation, now and for future generations." A group of 55 Evangelical Christian scientists released an Evangelical Scientists' Statement of Concern on Climate Change and the Need for Clean Energy, which concurs with the prevailing scientific consensus that global warming poses a serious threat that must be addressed. Signatories include senior leaders of the American Scientific Affiliation, the largest evangelical scientists association in the world. The Statement urges "government leaders at the national and international levels to act in accord with biblical justice (e.g. Ps. 72:1, 12-14a; I Kings 10:9; Prov. 31:8-9; Isa. 11:3-5; Jer. 21:11-12) and take the steps necessary to significantly reduce the threat of global climate change." Home     Table of Contents