wfn.org | LWI 2009-032 Call for Lutheran Communion Solidarity with Communities Affected by Climate Change

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Call for Lutheran Communion Solidarity with Communities Affected
by Climate Change
India: LWF Group Witnesses Villagers' Effort to Secure "Our
Daily Bread" 

PURI, Orissa State, India/GENEVA, 7 May 2009 (LWI) - A group of
theologians, ethicists, anthropologists and staff working on
adaptation and mitigation measures related to climate change, are
calling for the Lutheran communion’s global solidarity with
vulnerable communities that are acting to address the impact of
climate change.

"To be in communion with creation, means to be in solidarity
with those victimized by climate change, who inspire and motivate
our commitment and actions to redress climate change," stated the
23 persons following a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) "Climate
Change Encounter in India," 16 - 20 April, in Puri, in the
northeastern state of Orissa. 

The international event in disaster-prone Orissa was aimed at
witnessing first hand the dramatic effects of climate change, and
reflecting on the interconnections with other parts of the world.
It was organized by the LWF Department for Theology and Studies
(DTS) in collaboration with the United Evangelical Lutheran
Church in India (UELCI) and the Department for World Service
(DWS) associate program, Lutheran World Service India (LWSI).

In addition to those from the UELCI and LWSI, participants came
from LWF member churches in Australia, Denmark, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Sweden and the USA, from DWS programs in Bangladesh
and Tanzania, as well as other Christian denominations and
faiths. The five-day event comprised visits to coastal fisher
folk and farmer communities around the Bay of Bengal, analyses of
climate change, Bible story and worship.

In the six rural communities visited, the participants heard
testimonies from and interacted with a large number of persons,
whose entire lives, meaning and future are deeply affected by
climate change. The LWSI rural development project is working
with such communities to educate, empower people and support
local initiatives such as self-help groups, disaster management
and village development committees to counter the impact of
climate change.

The initiatives to adapt and take preventive measures include
effort to continually plant more trees; educating children;
promoting traditional food, well-being and health; and relying
more on communal family systems, which can survive better amid
climate change. Community members are also conscious of the need
to build houses on safer ground or raise them off the ground; and
to construct elevated tube wells that guard against salinization
during flooding. Through cooperation with government authorities
and various disaster alert mechanisms and groups, villagers
receive and plant new seeds after floods.

The LWF communiqué titled, "Witnessing to Hope Amid Rising
Waters," sums up what the event's participants witnessed, and
also invites solidarity with the hopeful actions that the
villagers are taking for their future.

As part of sharing the insights from the Puri communities with
the wider Lutheran communion, the participants recommend that the
process be broadened before and during Pre-Assemblies leading up
to the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany.

"Give Us Today Our Daily Bread" is the theme of the assembly, to
be hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wuerttemberg. 

They expressed their support for the various climate
change-related advocacy positions of the LWF Council and member
churches and encouraged others to do likewise. They urged a
strategic presence and LWF message at the December 2009 United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen,
Denmark. To coincide with that crucial meeting, they proposed
that a time be designated and promoted globally for ringing
church (and other) bells in order to emphasize the urgency of
redressing climate change. (583 words)

The full text of the communiqué from the LWF event in Puri is
available at: www.lutheranworld.org 

More information and further reflections about the LWF Eleventh
Assembly theme are available at:
www.lutheranworld.org/Assembly2010_theme.html 

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of 68.5 million. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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