wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Climate change a spiritual crisis says WCC

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 08/12/2005

CLIMATE CHANGE A SPIRITUAL CRISIS SAYS WCC

"We would like to light a candle" is how a World Council of Churches (WCC)
statement to the UN climate change conference in Montreal, Canada, begins.
The statement affirms that climate change is not only a technological,
economic and ecological crisis but also a spiritual one.

The statement is to be delivered on 9 December at the eleventh meeting of
the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, and the First Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol by WCC
climate change programme coordinator Dr David G. Hallman.

The statement, and the [non-fossil-fuel!] candle, will celebrate the
coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol, and evoke "the pain and disaster
already suffered in various regions due to climate change". It will signal
that "time is running out" for negotiating equitable and sustainable
targets for post-2012 when the present protocol expires.

The candle will also symbolize "that what we suffer from is not simply a
technological, economic or ecological crisis, but a spiritual crisis". It
is for this reason that the statement includes a spiritual declaration on
climate change drafted by faith community participants at the conference.
The declaration was circulated at an inter-faith ceremony attended by up
to 1000 people at St Joseph's Oratory in Montreal on 4 December. In an
earlier statement in support of WCC work on this issue, Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomeos I defined climate change as a "profoundly moral and
spiritual problem".

The WCC has been working on climate change ever since 1990, when this was
identified by the scientific community as one of the most threatening
social and ecological issues of our times, affecting creation as a
whole.

Representatives from over 180 countries are meeting in Montreal to
negotiate the future of action on climate change. The talks are primarily
about next steps in implementing the Kyoto Protocol, including resources
needed by developing nations for adaptation to the impacts of climate
change. The parties are attempting to start a process of negotiation for a
climate policy framework that will be needed once the Kyoto Protocol
expires in 2012.

The full text of the WCC statement and spiritual call is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/climatechange-cop11.html

The 12 August statement by HH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for the WCC
working group on climate change is available at:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/climatechange-bartholomew-2.html

More information about the conference and ecumenical involvement on the
Kairos Canada website:
http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/ecology/climateChange/copmop/index.asp

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.