Conference to address climate change as a moral issue
TORONTO, ON–Faith and development groups will gather in Toronto next month to discuss the spiritual implications of misusing the earth.
For too long environmental decline has been viewed as merely a scientific or economic problem, says Mishka Lysack, of Oikos Centre for the Environment at the University of Calgary. "It is fundamentally an ethical issue and an issue of justice. We are failing to be good stewards or guardians of the earth–which is what I feel God is calling us to be."
The conference, Facing Climate Change and Environmental Decline as Spiritual and Moral Issues, will take place April 16 to17 at the United Church of Canada offices, with evening workshops April 14 and 15 at Knox Presbyterian and St. Paul's Bloor Street.
Oikos and the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology, at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto are co-chairing the event. World Vision, A Rocha and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada are among the sponsors.
Lysack believes the earth is on the verge of reaching a tipping point after which disastrous climate change will be irreversible. He says preventing that will require a broad cooperation, like the "great social movements in history" which emancipated women and abolished slavery.
Willard Metzger of World Vision says climate change is hurting children and their families. "This is going to become an increasingly important issue for World Vision to be engaged in," Metzger says. "From the erosion of water supply to encroaching desert�climate change is going to put the welfare of more and more children at risk as each year passes if something isn't done to correct it."
Dennis O'Hara, director of the Elliott Allen Institute, is co-chairing the conference together with Lysack.
"We're trying to engender conversation and stimulate new thinking," O'Hara says. "Different people see problems and solutions differently. Issues of climate change are very complex. We believe that getting groups together to share their perspectives and approaches will promote collaboration and increase our understanding. Not just of the issues but also of possible, effective responses."
Lysack also hopes that the conference will bring evangelical and non-evangelical churches together through a "common respect for the sacredness of the earth which�belongs to God."
He sees care for creation as central to who we are as Christians and a common thread in the books of the Bible.
"For example, look at God's speech to Job," he says. "You can hear the very deep attachment and love that God has for the whole created order�and this has been implanted in our hearts."
Markku Kostamo, executive director of A Rocha Canada, says Christians are called to help heal our relationship with creation, along with our relationships with God and other people.
"Bringing healing in our relationship with creation is one that Christians and the Church has not necessarily grasped or embraced," he says. "But I don't think God does triage. I think God is big enough to care for all these relationships and bring wholeness in all of these areas."
"People are dying as a result of climate change," O'Hara adds, "It's is harming people. It's harming the planet. It should not be happening the way it is happening. And our bad behaviour is causing it. If you are a Christian, you should be seeing this as a Christian issue. Where there is injustice, we as Christians are called to respond."
"We're at a hinge point of history," Lysack adds. "Our descendants will look back and see that either we failed to protect what was given to us to pass on, or they will look at us as a remarkable generation that, despite all obstacles, turned it around. And I would like very much for us to be the second."
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