The 23rd session of the United Nations
Conference of the Parties on Climate Change provides occasion to recall
with introspection and reflect with integrity on the state of our world,
but also on where we have come and where we are headed as a global
community, especially in light of the urgent call of the Paris
Agreement.
Last November, our message to COP-22 was
that we “hold nations accountable to resolutions reached or for
violations incurred, especially as we know the intimate connections of
climate change to global poverty, migration and unrest.”
This June, prior to the G-20 summit in
Hamburg, we endorsed a letter inspired by Mission 2020 “calling on
nations to highlight the importance of the 2020 climate turning point
for greenhouse-gas emissions.”
On September 1st, the day when the
Ecumenical Patriarchate first initiated – back in 1989 – a plea for
prayers to protect God’s creation from human avarice, we co-signed a
declaration with Pope Francis, affirming “that there can be no enduring
resolution to climate change unless the response is concerted and
collective.”
This year, our annual pastoral letter to
Orthodox faithful worldwide expressed “our consternation that, while it
is clear that the ecological crisis is constantly escalating in the
name of growth and development, humanity remains oblivious to the global
appeals for radical change in our attitudes toward creation.”
And last month, at Arctic Circle
Assembly in Reykjavík, we assured heads of states, scholars and
indigenous representatives that “today, more and more people recognize
that religious consciousness and environmental science are alike
concerned with ultimate questions—namely, with the way that we are
shaping the destiny of humankind, the planet, and all creation.”
Still, even as so many recognize climate
change arguably as the greatest crisis that humanity has faced, there
is much resistance to any call for change. Some continue to ignore the
signs of our times with unprecedented ice melting, extreme weather
patterns, and devastating impact on world poverty.
Over the last year, the Ecumenical
Patriarchate has increased its involvement and influence within
religious, scientific and political circles. We therefore humbly urge
you—especially all faith communities and leaders, who can make an
enormous difference in convincing governments and corporations—never to
submit to complacency, but ever to amplify and intensify your efforts.
It is unacceptable to backpedal in any
way. Yet, it is also unjustifiable any longer to mark time. We are all
called to move forward in our commitment to the sacredness of “the least
of our brothers and sisters” as well as to the uniqueness of every last
grain of sand on this planet that we call home.
At the Phanar, on November 1, 2017.