wfn.org | Ecumenical Patriarch's Message for the Day of the Protection of the Environment

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Ecumenical Patriarch's Message for the Day of the Protection of the  Environment
Prot. No. 862
+ B A R T H O L O M E W
BY THE MERCY OF GOD ARCHBISHOP
OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME AND
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH
TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH
GRACE AND PEACE
FROM THE CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE
OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST
***

As we come again to the changing of the Church year, we reflect once
more on the state of Godâ??s creation.   We think about the past and
repent for all that we have done or failed to do for the earthâ??s
care; we look to the future and pray for wisdom to guide us in all
that we think or do.
These last twelve months have been a time of great uncertainty for the
whole world.  The financial systems that so many people trusted to
bring them the good things of life, have brought instead fear,
uncertainty and poverty. Our globalised economy has meant that
everyone - even the poorest who are far removed from the dealings of
big business - has been affected.
The present crisis offers an opportunity for us to deal with the
problems in a different way, because the methods that created these
problems cannot provide their best solution.  We need to bring love
into all our dealings, the love that inspires courage and compassion.
Human progress is not just the accumulation of wealth and the
thoughtless consumption of the earthâ??s resources. The way that the
present crisis has been dealt with has revealed the values of the few
who are shaping the destiny of our society; of those who can find vast
sums of money to support the financial system that has betrayed them,
but are not willing to allot even the least portion of that money to
remedy the piteous state the creation has been reduced to because of
these very values, or for feeding the hungry of the world, or for
securing safe drinking water for the thirsty, who are also victims of
those values. On the face of every hungry child is written a question
for us, and we must not turn away to avoid the answer.  Why has this
happened?  Is it a problem of human inability or of human will?
We have rendered the Market the centre of our interest, our activities
and, finally, of our life, forgetting that this choice of ours will
affect the lives of future generations, limiting the number of their
choices that would probably be more oriented towards the well-being of
man as well as the creation. Our human economy, which has made us
consumers, is failing.  The divine economy, which has made us in the
image of the loving Creator, calls us to love and care for all
creation.  The image we have of ourselves is reflected in the way we
treat the creation.  If we believe that we are no more than consumers,
then we shall seek fulfilment in consuming the whole earth; but if we
believe we are made in the image of God, we shall act with care and
compassion, striving to become what we are created to be.
Let us pray for Godâ??s blessing on the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen in December, so that the industrially
developed countries may co-operate with developing countries in
reducing harmful polluting emissions, that there may exist the will to
raise and manage wisely the funds required for the necessary measures,
and that all may work together to ensure that our children enjoy the
goods of the earth that we leave behind for them.  There must be
justice and love in all aspects of economic activity; profit ? and
especially short-term prrofit ? cannot and should not be the sole
motive of our actions.
Let us all renew our commitment to work together and bring about the
changes we pray for, to reject everything that is harming the
creation, to alter the way we think and thus drastically to alter the
way we live.

> September 1st, 2009 A.D.

> Your beloved brother in Christ and
> fervent supplicant before God,

> + BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

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