wfn.org | United Methodists join 'Sacred Gifts' event in Nepal

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 6, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-33-71B{505}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #506.

By United Methodist News Service

In Mongolia, Buddhist leaders have publicly announced the reintroduction of
a centuries-old ban on hunting the snow leopard and saiga antelope, both
endangered species there.

In the United States, members of United Methodist Women are continuing a
campaign to convince local branches of Kinko's, a chain of copying stores,
to use chlorine-free paper.

In Europe, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has promoted the River
of Life environmental network, designed to engage religious communities
along the Danube River in efforts of conservation. 

These are among the "Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet" that will be
celebrated Nov. 15 in Nepal. Organized by the Alliance of Religions and
Conservation (ARC) and the WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly known as
the World Wildlife Fund), the world's largest independent conservation
organization, the event is expected to draw more than 800 faith leaders and
environmentalists.

Representatives of the world's major faiths -- including Christians, Jews,
Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Bahais, Sikhs, Shintos, Taoists and
Zoroastrians - will make action-oriented pledges addressing a wide range of
environmental issues.

The Rev. Kathleen LaCamera, a United Methodist pastor and press officer for
ARC, said the Nepal event probably will mark the first time so many
worldwide religious leaders will have gathered to make such commitments.
Their participation, she added, is an effort "to acknowledge that the planet
is important and sacred."

The Sacred Gifts program was inaugurated in partnership with ARC in 1999 as
part of the WWF's Living Planet Campaign. It recognizes that faith groups
not only are involved in conservation efforts, but also expresses their
environmental concerns in ways appropriate to their own traditions and
social situations. The results are models of conviction, commitment and
grass-roots action that others could emulate.

The gifts to be presented in Nepal provide models of what can be
accomplished, according to LaCamera. Different segments of the denomination
have responded to the Sacred Gifts program, she said, because they
"understood right away what we were trying to do on a global scale."

Pamela Sparr, who will be in Nepal representing the Women's Division of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, considers participation to be
"a really great honor" and is looking forward to sharing with and learning
from faith leaders from other countries and traditions. "One of the aims of
the Women's Division's work on the environment is that it has a multiplier
effect," she said. The Women's Division administers the United Methodist
Women organization.

After a 1994 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report concluded that the
bleaching process used by paper manufacturers releases cancer-causing
dioxins into the air, the Women's Division made the switch to chlorine-free
paper and embarked on an educational and awareness-building campaign about
chlorine-free products within the church. The division also initiated the
Kinko's campaign. In 1996, General Conference, the denomination's top
legislative body, backed the work with a resolution on "A Dioxin-Free
Future."

Another denominational body, the United Methodist Board of Pension and
Health Benefits, will offer as a gift its use of investments as a way to
prompt companies to maintain ethical and environmentally friendly business
practices. Laurie Michalowski, the board's coordinator of corporate
responsible ministry, will attend the Nepal event. She hopes the agency's
gift will demonstrate "the power of the investment tool" and show its
potential "for addressing issues of concern that affect the environment and
peoples."

United Methodists also are involved in a push to combat global warming in
the United States. That "gift" is being presented by the U.S. National
Council of Churches, which is working in cooperation with the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment on the project.

Other sacred gifts to be presented in Nepal include:
·	An environmental audit being launched by leaders of the United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations.
·	A pledge by the China Taoists Association to call upon its members
to stop using endangered animals in traditional medicine products.
·	A team effort by Muslim fishing communities to conserve Misali
Island, one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the Zanzibar
archipelago.
·	A pledge by India's Sikh community to reduce fossil fuel consumption
in Delhi's community kitchens.

More information about the Sacred Gifts Project is available at the ARC Web
site, www.religionsandconservation.org, or the WWF Web site, www.panda.org.
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United Methodist News Service
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