Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability is taking root in Germany
Having moved into the administrative structures of the Ecumenical One World Initiative (Germany’s Earth Charter Affiliate) the Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability has gained some momentum in Germany:
• In February, EOWI published a special edition of its Earth Charter Newsletter, focusing exclusively on the new program and how religious institutions in Germany can become actively involved in spreading and implementing the Earth Charter’s vision for a more just, sustainable and peaceful world.
• The spring edition of the “Oekumenischer Informationsdienst” – the journal of key ecumenical groups, organizations and networks involved in the conciliar process in Germany – also highlighted the program and its aims and objectives.
• In a meeting with the environmental officer of the Protestant Church of Baden, an agreement was reached that the Earth Charter will be used as a background document for the training sessions for environmental tutors and auditors that the Church of Baden is hosting, while the Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability will help to spread the successes and experiences of the environmental activities and projects that the local congregations are conducting.
• On Sunday, May 18, ECI Program Coordinator Michael Slaby will present the Earth Charter at the Kids’ Conference of the World Future Council and lead a working group on climate change.
• The spring edition of EOWI’s Earth Charter Newsletter, published in early May, elaborates the Earth Charter’s stance towards biological diversity and will be used to infuse the Earth Charter into the NGO activities surrounding the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)-Conference in Bonn from 19th to 30th May.
• EOWI’s proposal to use the Earth Charter as a common platform to convene religious institutions around the topics of the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development found acceptance of the German DESD Commission, which announced their intention to include this project into their official DESD Plan of Action that will be published soon.
• ECI Program Coordinator Michael Slaby has been invited to participate in the consultation “Peace on Earth is Peace with the Earth” to be held in Geneva in September 2008 that is part of the preparatory process of the World Council of Churches’ International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011. The contact to the coordinators of the preparatory process located in Bremen, Germany, was established through EOWI’s broad network of local supporters in the country’s ecumenical movement.