Faith based organisations including the ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation, Christian Aid and Act Church of Sweden have joined forces to launch a period of intense prayer and action for the climate.
These organisations launched a year long prayer and action chain ahead of the COP 26 summit in Glasgow in November later in the year to encourage communities of faith to pray and act for climate justice.
During this period of Lent which starts today, ecumenical organisations intensify prayer about everything and we encourage all to include adequate and effective actions for the climate and to influence policy makers at any level accessible to them to increase political will particularly towards COP 26, where we pray to see more consensus and real action which has been missing these past years.
Arnold Ambundo, ACT Alliance’s Global Climate Justice Coordinator says that “Our survival on this God-given earth is facing an existential threat from the adverse impacts of climate change. Now more than ever humankind is called upon to come together in prayer and in action to urgently reverse the current trend of business as usual to guarantee the needs of present and future generations as demanded by the word of God in the creation stories”.
In the face of devastating loss and suffering by those who mostly had very little to do with causing climate change, the organisations call on all to pray and act for climate justice with us as we reflect on the diversity of creation. Abena Afari of Christian Aid said: “Let’s embrace in love and solidarity impoverished communities, women, children, indigenous people, migrants, refugees who historically have generated a low carbon footprint, yet are the ones facing the greatest impacts from the destruction to planet and climate caused by overconsumption by the rich and an economic model based on extraction and exploitation”
“If we truly care about bridging the inequality gap between the rich and the poor, we need to create solidarity between people and peoples and call for governments and industries to deliver radical and rapid emissions reductions and ways to increase resilience to already unavoidable impacts of climate change and ecological destruction”.
During the Earth Summit in 1992, the United Nations together with Governments and Civil Society agreed to a framework to battle the emission of greenhouse gases which cause climate change. The UN Convention on Climate Change provides a framework through which discussions are held with all global players with respect to humanity’s current challenge of tackling the climate crisis.
LWF’s Program Executive for Climate Justice, Elena Cedillo Vargas, underscored the importance of this global, ecumenical initiative: She said; “We are at a crucial moment, now, more than ever before, we must take care of creation, our common home, and call on our leaders to take more ambitious and urgent action to stop the climate crisis.” COP26, Cedillo stressed, is “the last chance for countries to really show their commitments to reduce their carbon emissions. There is no going back, the decision is in our hands, we all need to change our habits and pay more attention to cries of the earth.”
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Notes to editors:
The ACT Alliance is a global network of churches and church-based agencies that does humanitarian response, sustainable development, and advocacy work. ACT is made up of 156 members working in over 125 countries.
Media contacts:
Simon Chambers, Director of Communications, ACT Alliance
Mobile: +1-416-435-0972
Email: Simon.Chambers@actalliance.org
Rev. Arni Svanur Danielsson, Head of Communication, Lutheran World Federation
Mobile: +41 78 929 9686
Email: arni.danielsson@lutheranworld.org
Joe Ware, Comms Manager, News & Emergencies, Christian Aid
Mobile: +44 78 7094 4485
Emal: JWare@christian-aid.org
Twitter: @wareisjoe
