In addition to this sampling, you can view a YouTube playlist of Interreligious Cooperation and Ecology videos here.
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The broad impact of changing climate and issues for intergenerational climate justice are central to all global agendas, from economic and financial policies to political and cultural relations. Religious actors have central roles, both in the formal spaces such as the COP meetings and in national and community policies. Translating this into effective advocacy and mobilization and modeling action link religious and interreligious communities to global and especially G20 agendas. This discussion will take stock of actions to date and look especially to the 2023 COP 28 meetings in Dubai. Both the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative and Faiths4Earth mobilize and integrate religious communities, working side by side towards global climate objectives. Moderator: Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Secretary General, Global Interfaith Wash Alliance, India; Panelists: Dr. Katherine Marshall, Vice President ,G20 Interfaith Forum; Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith; Maja Groff, Convener of Climate Governance Commission; Rev. Dr. Samuel Richmond Saxena, Dean, Faculty of Interfaith and Religious Studies and Director, Centre for Advanced Religious Studies, North East Christian University, Nagaland; Gopal Patel, Co-Founder & Director, Bhumi Global; Pinaki Dasgupta, Member –Working Group on Pollution, Faith for Earth Initiative, Sr. Consultant, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
The Temple of Understanding ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL Dialogues present “Youth Voices on Climate From Religious and Spiritual Perspectives.” Madeline Canfield, Jewish Youth Climate Movement/ Adamah; Aashna Patel, Hindu Climate Action UK; Alethea Phillips, Earth Guardians, Native Youth Alliance; Aly Tharp, GreenFaith USA. This event took place 06/28/2023.
This episode of Spotlights features Gopal D. Patel, a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner, and consultant. He is co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, an international Hindu faith-inspired NGO that works to promote environmental care. He is also a senior advisor for the Center for Earth Ethics, co-chair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council, and an Advisor to the World Wildlife Fund Beliefs and Values Programme. We discuss his personal experience of Hinduism, his background with multi-faith dialogue, and the challenges and opportunities facing religious environmentalism around the world, including some ways that religious environmentalism can facilitate constructive responses to climate grief and eco-anxiety.
We face major sustainability challenges in the 21st Century. Fortunately, we have a unique opportunity to implement solutions at a global scale. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a rallying point, and Faith Based Organizations are working on a host of activities across multiple SDGs, including conserving nature, scaling renewable energy, providing access to clean water, and returning land to Indigenous management. The Parliament of the World's Religions, UNEP Faith for Earth, United Religions Initiative, and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology launch the “Faith Action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals” project, a living, evolving, searchable database featuring faith-based organizations around the world doing work within the scope of the environmental SDGs.
As we are called to activate our faith communities to bolder climate action, what do we do right now? We must continue talking about climate change as a moral, justice and faith issue in pulpits, educational programming, and in our communities, but we must do more. Faith traditions are deploying powerful new programs and resources and building networks to achieve climate solutions at the local, state and federal level. Hear about these new and innovative efforts to not only activate those already concerned about climate, but to reach others and build a broader base for faithful climate action and advocacy.
The Parliament of the World's Religions, UNEP's Faith for Earth Program, and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology are proud to partner together in a special celebration of Earth Day 2021.
Faith leaders of various traditions speak together about how they are mobilizing their communities toward action in the face of planetary crisis. With Rev. Jim Antal, UCC; Sofia Gilani, Green Muslims; Rabbi Warren Stone, American Conference of Rabbis; Hari Venkatachalam, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus; Peterson Toscano, Citizen's Climate Radio.
This event convened voices from Pope Francis’ staff in Rome and from diverse religious traditions and various agencies to encourage discernment, cooperation, and policy development for an integral ecology. The program consisted of three online sessions over two days. On October 29 Cardinal Miguel Ayuso, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, will deliver the keynote address in the first session after words of welcome from Dr. John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-founders and co-directors of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, offered reflections after Cardinal Ayuso’s address. In a subsequent session, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu representatives reflected on how Laudato Si resonates in their religious traditions. On October 30, representatives of various agencies and organizations structured to connect religious communities on environmental issues explored how multireligious cooperation enhances care of the earth and the vulnerable. This event took place on October 9, 2020.
FORUM2020 & the Global Interfaith Prayer Service for the Earth were held on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Temple of Understanding. World religious and spiritual visionaries, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and youth environmental activists came together to address the urgency of the climate crisis with strategies for inspired collective action. Over forty international speakers offered their wisdom and perspectives through keynote addresses, diverse panels, inspiring prayers and sacred music.
To watch video, please follow this link.
FORUM2020 & the Global Interfaith Prayer Service for the Earth were held on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Temple of Understanding. World religious and spiritual visionaries, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and youth environmental activists came together to address the urgency of the climate crisis with strategies for inspired collective action. Over forty international speakers offered their wisdom and perspectives through keynote addresses, diverse panels, inspiring prayers and sacred music.
To view video, please follow this link.
With an intersectional perspective, voices from many religious traditions speak on what ecojustice for all means to them at the critical juncture for the climate that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in. This Facebook Live was held on October 1, 2020.
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Washington National Cathedral and Interfaith Power & Light co-host this online service focused on our shared call to climate action. Join us in prayer and song in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Our traditions are beautiful in their diversity. Each offers a unique gift to our collective effort to protect our Earth with all her living communities. Leaders from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Latter-Day Saints, Muslim, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist and other spiritual communities share their traditions' gifts through sacred text, commentary, and song, and call us to collective action.
Peer-reviewed science offers a clear consensus: that climate change, caused by humans, is an existential threat, and the defining issue of our time. How can the Jewish community–from JCRCs to synagogues to national agencies–step up to meet this challenge? In this session at the JCPA2020 Workshop, top Jewish and interfaith experts offer concrete suggestions on why, how, and with whom to prioritize climate change as a core Jewish communal concern. They discuss the coalitional value of Jewish visibility, especially around environmental justice; the multi-faith promise of a growing response, linking Jewish communities deeply with our Christian, Muslim, and other counterparts; and the intergenerational urgency of staying relevant, as young people around the world lead the charge to address the climate crisis. Moderator: Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) Speakers: Cassandra Carmichael, National Religious Partnership for the Environment(NRPE); Nigel Savage, Hazon; Joelle Novey, Interfaith Power and Light for MD-DC-NoVA. This event was held at the JCPA2020 National Conference, held from February 8-11, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Peer-reviewed science offers a clear consensus: that climate change, caused by humans, is an existential threat, and the defining issue of our time. How can the Jewish community–from JCRCs to synagogues to national agencies–step up to meet this challenge? In this session, top Jewish and interfaith experts offer concrete suggestions on why, how, and with whom to prioritize climate change as a core Jewish communal concern. They discuss the coalitional value of Jewish visibility, especially around environmental justice; the multi-faith promise of a growing response, linking Jewish communities deeply with our Christian, Muslim, and other counterparts; and the intergenerational urgency of staying relevant, as young people around the world lead the charge to address the climate crisis. Moderator: Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) Speakers: Cassandra Carmichael, National Religious Partnership for the Environment(NRPE); Nigel Savage, Hazon; Joelle Novey, Interfaith Power and Light for MD-DC-NoVA
The Global Environmental Justice Documentaries collection was first released in April 2019. This project is a curated compilation of documentaries selected by faculty who wrote the accompanying teacher's guides. The subscriptions, which support the project, are especially low, thanks to underwriting provided by the Luce Foundation.
Nearly all religious and spiritual traditions of the world call upon their followers to respect creation and preserve it for future generations. This moderated panel discussion included Catholic, Spiritualist, Zoroastrian, and Hindu perspectives, with a Q&A to follow. Filmed at the 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions in Toronto.
Nearly all religious and spiritual traditions of the world call upon their followers to respect creation and preserve it for future generations. This moderated panel discussion will include Catholic, Spiritualist, Zoroastrian, and Hindu perspectives, with a Q&A to follow.
There is great potential for deepening interreligious dialogue focusing on our shared ecological challenges. The growing ecological crisis clearly requires the response of science and technology, economics and policy. But we will also need the participation of the world's religious communities as we recognize the moral and spiritual implications of the diminishment of the life support systems of the planet. This talk highlights some of the remarkable work being done within religious communities around the world to bring restoration to people and land. While acknowledging the limitations of religions it also notes the promise for ethical and spiritual transformation regarding ecological attitudes and practices. Interreligious dialogue has a new and vital role to play in healing the Earth.
Every religious, spiritual and faith tradition views earth through a sacred lens and teaches adherents to protect the environment and all forms of life on our planet. At a vital moment in history, the Global Interfaith Movement and the Environmental Movement Join Forces at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Salt Lake City on October 15 - 19, 2015.
The opening of the “Economy, Ecology and Ethics: Mobilizing for a Just Transition” conference held at Union Theological Seminary on 9/16/2015, “Religions for the Earth: The Road Through Paris” features remarks by Mary Evelyn Tucker, Mordechai Liebling, Kara Ball, Kusumita Pedersen, and Swami Parameshananda.
Religions for Peace is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition advancing common action for peace by working to advance multi-religious consensus on positive aspects of peace as well as concrete actions to stop war, help eliminate extreme poverty and protect the earth. The global Religions for Peace network comprises a World Council of senior religious leaders from all regions of the world; six regional inter-religious bodies and more than ninety national ones; and the Global Women of Faith Network and Global Interfaith Youth Network.
This interfaith conference addresses the issues and challenges of maintaining a sustainable planet. Focused on ways to engage, panelists examines the overlapping moral issues of climate change, sustainability, social justice, and mindfulness through the lenses of many of the world's religious traditions. Dan McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, Harvard Divinity School; Lama Willa Miller, Founder and Spiritual Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and a Buddhist Climate Activist; Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman, Graduate of Hebrew College Rabbinical School with a background in environmental studies and education; Munjed M. Murad, ThD Candidate, Harvard Divinity School and Junior Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions; Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Missioner for Creation Care, Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts; Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Climate Activist, Conference Minister, and President, Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ; Tim DeChristopher, Climate Activist, Unitarian Universalist, and MDiv Candidate, Harvard Divinity School; Q&A with the panelists, moderated by Dan McKanan.
Showing the deep connection between our present ecological crisis and our lack of awareness of the sacred nature of creation, this series of essays from spiritual and environmental leaders around the world shows how humanity can transform its relationship with the Earth. Combining the thoughts and beliefs from a diverse range of essayists, this collection highlights the current ecological crisis and articulates a much-needed spiritual response to it. Perspectives from Buddhism, Sufism, Christianity, and Native American beliefs as well as physics, deep psychology, and other environmental disciplines, make this a well-rounded contribution.
His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama joins Father E. William Beauchamp, Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Rabbi Michael Cahana, and Imam Muhammad Najeeb in an interfaith discussion on spirituality and the environment. The religious leaders draw from the depths of their traditions to highlight the importance of interfaith tolerance and respect for the interconnected web of life.
Interfaith Power and Light brings together people of different faiths to be better stewards of creation by responding to global warming and by supporting changes in environmental public policy. This video features interviews with various leaders of different religions from throughout the United States, highlighting what work their faith communities are doing, why they are compelled to do this work, and how they are engaging their communities to be better stewards of creation.
The Dalai Lama brings together spiritual, political and scientific leaders for the Environmental Summit in Portland, Oregon to discuss spirituality and the environment. With an emphasis on personal responsibility, His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama says human-caused damage to the planet is immoral.
His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa speaking at His Holiness the Dalai Lama's gathering of contemplative scholars, activists and ecological scientists who discuss the interconnection between individual choices and environmental consequences.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama in dialogue with contemplative scholars, activists and ecological scientists who discuss the interconnection between individual choices and environmental consequences. The conference was held at His Holiness's office in Dharamsala, India, from October 17-21, 2011.
Mary Evelyn Tucker speaks about RENEWAL, the documentary film about the religious-environmental movement, and this hope-filled moment in history when religious people of all faiths are coming forward for the environment. Her talk was part of the interfaith service and screening of RENEWAL at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, NYC. Tucker is co-coordinator of Yale University's Forum on Religion and Ecology.
PeaceCaster Leslie Harrison interviews author Mary Evelyn Tucker at the 2008 Festival of Faiths.
Header photo credit: ©EcoPeace Middle East