WORLD FELLOWSHIP

of

INTERRELIGIOUS COUNCILS

 

Spirituality and the Environment

 

 

STATEMENT OF THE 9 ASSEMBLY OF THE WFIRC

OCTOBER 4 – 7, 2008, KOCHI, KERALA

 

A Brief Report

 

1. Introduction

Over 200 pilgrims of dialogue families, representing the various dialogue groups and centers from India and abroad, gathered at the Renewal Centre Kaloor, Kochi, India, from 4 to 7 October 2008 and prayerfully reflected on Spirituality and Environment, a theme very relevant in our present day society. They have resumed their journey with renewed commitment and enthusiasm to continue the on going processes of dialogue, creating and maintaining a sacred and eco-friendly environment conducive to the existence of all beings, generated and nurtured by our Mother Earth.

 

2.Inauguration

The delegates were accorded a very warm welcome in the traditional settings of the Kerala culture at the Chavara Cultural Centre, the birth place and permanent secretariat of the WFIRC. After the welcome speech by Justice P K Shamsuddin, President WFIRC and the exposition of the dynamics by Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil, Secretary General of the WFIRC the Honorable Justice Sri.Cyriac Joseph, a judge of the Supreme Court of India solemnly inaugurated the assembly.

Bishop Sahu the General Secretary, NCCI Nagpur released the souvenir specially prepared for this meet. Short felicitations were offered by the representatives of various religions and interfaith organizations. The session was concluded by the presidential address of Rev. Dr Marcus Braybrooke, the President of World Congress of Faiths and Patron of the International Centre, Oxford. .

 

3.Other Events

 

The programme of the assembly consisted of five Panel sessions dealing with various aspects of the general theme Spirituality and Environment, two workshops sessions, reporting on the activities of the dialogue centres and groups at the local levels. Besides these there were also inter- religious prayer sessions and meditations every morning and evening. The cultural events were helpful for the delegates to participate in the programmes in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The surprise visit from Mr. Binoy Vishvam, Honourable Minister for Forest and Environment, Kerala and his address were very much appreciated by the delegates. The concluding candle procession and the inter- religious Sandhya prayer was a fitting grand finale for the whole assembly events.

Statement

 

4.Religion is the expression of the authentic and innate urge of men and women to communicate with God/the Divine and to shape their relationship with their fellow pilgrims and the creation . So the Nature or the Universe is an essential component of our religious life since it is impossible for us to live and to attain to our fulfillment without a close link with it. Contrary to some of the accepted religious beliefs  man is not the master of the universe with absolute power to use or abuse it solely for his selfish goals. As a faithful gardener he is expected to nurture it with love and reverence and thus obtain sustenance for him and for all other beings. The Nature is so plentiful that if well maintained it can satisfy the needs and not the greed of people.

 

5.We need nothing less than a spiritual revolution if we are to do justice to our responsibilities to the environment. This demands an unprecedented paradigm shift in the way in which we look at ourselves, at others and at the planet we inhabit. We have to discover or recover our spiritual and existential relationship to the Nature in order to solve most of our problems related to food, shelter, climate, health, wealth, transportation etc. In other words care of the environment is central to our concern for social justice.

We are part of a chain of beings that stretches back for millions of years and so we need to recognize our inter dependence with all of them.

 

 6. The Environmental crisis is not a problem out there for world leaders and the World Bank to solve- but a serious issue which all of us have to face and address here and now. Our mountains, plains, rivers and even the seashores are being polluted day by day denying the weaker sections and the marginalized people of the society their natural rights for existence and livelihood. Not only the multi-national companies and the other agents of globalization, but even our own people who are well placed and who have the know how, exploit, plunder and annihilate our rich, natural and national resources for their selfish interest and economic motives.

 

7. All human beings should become aware of the grave situation in which we and all other beings live today. The water and food we take in,and the air we breath in are all contaminated . The poor and the marginalized have no other choice but to consume the polluted items and become easy prey to incurable diseases and early death. The vulnerable sections of the society that suffer the most are the children of the poor.

 

8. The members of tribal religions consider the nature as their own mother and have great reverence and love for it. That is why worshiped sun, sky, seas, mountains, rivers, trees, cows etc. The better organized religions built their places of worship either on the mountains or on the banks of rivers surrounded by trees. The mystics of all religious traditions fell in love with Nature and spent much of the time in solitude and forest. But now with the strong currents of changes sweeping across all the sections of the society, the religious leaders especially the younger ones show very little concern for the protection and promotion of our nature and its resources.

 

9. All religious minded people should be imbued with the awareness of our oneness with the Nature. This may inspire in us the compassion and energy that will ensure peace, joy and happiness to all the people on earth. The bounties of our mother earth should be respected, preserved and promoted for the future generations.

 

10. Spirituality, being understood as maintaining the right relationship with the Divine, with the other and with the Nature is intrinsically related with environmental situation where we live. We need a calm and serene atmosphere to lead a normal human life. Because of the economic constraints People are uprooted from their own family, rural and religious backgrounds and transplanted in alien situations where money matters everything. What about the spirituality of these people who are in a new and strange societal situation? Their parents, relatives and all those who are responsible for their spiritual growth should take proper care so that they may not loose their right orientation towards life.

 

11. Love for self and money is the root cause of all evils in society. A small minority of the rich and the influential groups and the powerful nations in the world consume most of the world’s resources denying even the most essential things for the survival of the poor. Because of their greed and manipulative power they exploit, plunder and even abuse the nature. Here comes the need for a true spirituality that has love and concern for all the members of the society. In fact concern for Nature means concern for other human beings, who are our sisters and brothers.

 

12. People should be taught to satisfy themselves with the minimum requirements for their daily life and leave the rest for the benefit of others. Avoid vain glory and cultivate simplicity in matters of food, shelter and clothing. If you follow this principle we can avoid the annihilation of our Sacred Nature and leave the world in a better position than we received it. All the religious leaders have to teach their followers these principles and if they follow them we humans can have a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous life on Earth.

 

Recommendations

Many significant suggestions have emerged from the common deliberations of this assembly.

A few of the most important:

 

1.     Carry on the activities of the WFIRC where the dialogue groups are very active and strengthen those who are weak. Establish, if necessary, regional centres of the WFIRC and function in collaboration with the central office in Kochi.

2.     Propagate the ideas of cleanliness in our society especially in our villages and residential areas. Stop throwing away plastic bottles and bags in our surroundings. Reduce their use and recycle them if possible.

3.     Cultivate love for Nature in the hearts of our people, especially among the children and the students.

4.     Stop deforestation in our areas. Avoid cutting of the trees. Never permit a tree to be cut down unless it is absolutely necessary. Plant a tree if a tree is uprooted.

5.     Inform the concerned authorities and create awareness among the public through posters and through the help of media organizing protest meetings and marches if there are cases of pollution of our wells, rivers and our surroundings.

6.     Grow plants in our homes and surroundings. Use natural flowers in the place of artificial ones.

7.     Celebrate the World Day of Environment with necessary preparation and publicity.

8.     Practise Ayurvedic and other alternative systems for healing both physical and psychological problems.

 

WFIRC 2008 ASSEMBLY

 

Presidential Address

 

Spirituality and the Environment

 

Marcus Braybrooke.

 

 

Your honour, revered leaders, brothers and sisters, thank you for honouring me by this invitation to speak.

 

I am delighted to be in Kochi again and to have the opportunity to participate in another Assembly of the World Federation of Inter-religious Councils. I am sure you will all join me in expressing our appreciation to Fr Albert Nambiaparambil, and those who have worked with him, for bringing us all together and in voicing our thanks to him for a life devoted to building interfaith fellowship.

 

I personally, as a Christian, owe a great deal to India’s rich spiritual heritage. Over forty years ago I studied at Madras Christian College. I learned from Hinduism that the Mystery of the Divine is more wonderful than any names by which we address the Holy.  This helped me discover the Christian mystical tradition, which in the sixties was largely hidden. The great Mosques of North India deepened my sense of the transcendent glory of God. Later, visiting the Golden Temple, I became more aware of how precious all our scriptures are to us. I could speak of the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and of Buddhism in making me aware, as Jesus also showed, that any real change can only come by non-violent means. I could go on, but my first point is that far from diluting our particular faith, our interfaith fellowship is spiritually enriching and, as C.F. Andrews said, it makes us more aware of the universal compassion of the Divine.

Interfaith sharing is also enriching as our personal friendships grow and the importance of this needs to be emphasised at a time when religious differences are misused to foment hatred and violence. Our interfaith friendships ‘bind us together in love’ and in an affection in which our religious labels become irrelevant.  This was vividly emphasised to us on Vivekananda’s rock on the day before the 1993 WFIRC Assembly. We had only just arrived in India and as were shown round Mary – who asks me to send her greetings to her many interfaith friends here – felt quite faint. Various people offered to help and it was a Baha’i who pushed us to front of the queue onto the ferry. Then, when we got off it, a Hindu drove us to the hotel. About an hour later, there was a knock on the door and there if I remember aright, was Mrs Meher Master Moos with an envelope in her hand. ‘I think you dropped this on the rock. Do you want it?’ It contained our tickets, our passports, and our money. ‘Yes, thank you, we certainly do need it.’

 

But, an old man’s privilege, allow me one more memory. At Madras Christian College, I went with some other students – a Catholic from Sri Lanka and a Muslim from Hyderabad to help at a Leprosy Clinic. The doctor was a Saivite.  There I learned what is the deepest reason for our interfaith endeavours: that we should overcome past prejudice and misunderstanding and join together in the service of the poor. Each child who dies of hunger or of a curable disease is evidence of our failure and the failure of our religions to serve God – of whatever name – in the way that God most desires.

 

This too is why not only faiths should come together but also why all who give time and energy to the various interfaith groups – be they local, national or international – also need to co-operate. This is why the International Interfaith Centre was set up in Oxford fifteen years ago. The interfaith movement is bigger than any organisation. There is more than enough for us all to do and we shall be more effective in the changes for which we pray if we see ourselves as partners. It is this that IION – the International Interfaith Organisations Network  - exists to encourage. We will be enriched in our discussions as we learn of what all of you are doing and I hope we can contribute to this important gathering. Thank you for welcoming us. And our IION meeting here is a sign that we take environmental issues seriously. Many of us wished in any case to accept the kind invitation to the WFIRC meeting, but by having the IION meeting at the same time – we have halved our carbon footprint – so thank you for your hospitality.

 

What I want to suggest tonight is that we need nothing less than a spiritual revolution if we are to do justice to our responsibilities to the environment. I said this in a World Congress of Faiths ‘Interfaith Celebration of Animals’ a couple of weeks ago and then next day read these words by Chandra Muzzafar of Just International, who would like to have been here: ‘The solutions … require an unprecedented paradigm shift in the way in which we look at ourselves, at others, and at the planet we inhabit.’[i]

 

Care of the environment is central to our concern for social justice. Droughts, which are linked to climate change, are one cause of the current food crisis. The likely rise in sea levels will endanger the poor who live in areas most exposed to flooding. Moreover the richer countries consume more of the world’s resources and their carbon footprints are those of giants, if not dinosaurs. These are issues that, no doubt, the panels will be discussing. But these issues point beyond themselves to our need to discover or recover a truly spiritual relationship to Nature

 

Recently I went to Eilat in the South of Israel on the Red Sea, where there is a coral reef and an aquarium that allows you to go under water and observe the amazing variety of brightly coloured fish. I felt part of the ocean life and recognised again that every creature  - ‘water-beings, fire-beings, plants, animals’ (to quote from the Jain scriptures) from the simplest to the most complex share the wonderful gift of Life.

 

My friend and great spiritual teacher Donald Nicholl – some of you may know his book Holiness  - wrote of his experience one morning climbing down the steep path into the Grand Canyon in America. Seeing the different layers of fossils, he said, ‘You feel a true kinship with all those beings knowing that you and they trace their existence back to the first moment when life appeared on earth. And then you start to reflect that the very eyes with which you are observing these wondrous evidences are the result of millions of years of striving for light… We are who we are thanks to the striving and sacrifice of innumerable living beings who have helped to make possible the life we enjoy.’

 

We are part of a chain of being that stretches back for millions of years and we need to recognise our interdependence with all life and our need to respect and care for it. This truth, as you well know and could illustrate, is to be found in all the great religious traditions. It is also affirmed in publications of the United Nations Environment Programme.[ii]

 

Prophetic thinkers such as Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo, however, go further and have emphasised that the story of evolution is a growth in consciousness, which in human beings becomes self-consciousness. The pattern of sacrifice, of life through death, which in the Natural world is involuntary, now becomes a matter of choice. As Jesus said, ‘He who loses his life will save it.’

 

Are we willing to lay down our lives for others? Too often we refuse and history is the repeated tragic story of killing rather than being killed. But spiritual teachers, such as Jesus who chose the way of the Cross, and the Buddha or Mahatma Gandhi and many others who preached non-violence, teach us that sacrifice is the way to life. The Environmental Crisis is not a problem out there – for World Leaders and the World Bank to solve – but a direct question to each one of us about our own spirituality. Do we reflect in the way we live, in the choices we make, in our awareness of our oneness with people of other faiths and races, in our care for animals and our respect for nature, this reverence for all life? Are we living icons of the truth that life  - all life  - is precious, because it is a gift of God?

 

It is fascinating that mystics who plumb the depths of the Spirit and those who have explored outer space have the same message for us.

 

Pictures of the earth taken from space have been called a symbol for our age. Astronauts David Brown and Kalpana Chawla, who both died in the Columbia spacecraft disaster, spoke of the magical beauty of our planet as seen from space.  ‘If I’d been born in space,’ David Brown said, ‘I would desire to visit beautiful Earth more than I ever yearned to visit space. It’s a wonderful planet.’ Kalpana Chawla said, ‘The first view of Earth is magical… in such a small planet, with such a small ribbon of life, so much goes on. You get the feeling that I need to work extraordinarily hard along with other human beings to respect that.’[iii] 

 

Mystics who have explored inner space proclaim the same message of unity. The French Jesuit and palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin said, ‘I live at the heart of a single, unique Element, the Centre of the Universe, and present in each part of it; personal Love and cosmic Power.’[iv] The American environmental theologian Fr. Thomas Berry has written ‘We are earthlings. The Earth is our origin, our nourishment, our support, our guide. Our spirituality itself is Earth-derived.’[v]

 

Awareness of our oneness with all life and with the Source of Being should inspire in us the compassion and energy that will ensure that all people live in peace and that no one goes hungry and that the Natural world is protected for future generations and that all beings are valued and their right to life is respected. To share in such a spiritual revolution is today’s exciting and challenging call to all people of faith.   As the environmentalist Jane Goodall says, ‘We are moving toward the ultimate destiny of our species – a state of compassion and love.’[vi]

 

Rev Dr Marcus Braybrooke is President of the World Congress of Faiths, Patron of the International Interfaith Centre and Co-Founder of the Three Faiths Forum. He is the author of over forty books including A Heart for the World  and  What Can We learn from Hinduism and What can We learn from Islam. He edited the anthology 1,000 World Prayers.

 

 

NOTES