The deputation at which the decision was made took place in February and was the culmination of a process which began almost a year ago when Rabbi Amswych invited the Director of the Earth Charter in the UK, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, to an Inter-faith meeting attended by 70 local clergy and lay leaders, representatives of most of the religious groups in the local area. Their enthusiastic interest in the Earth Charter and its inspiring vision and ethical framework encouraged Rabbi Amswych to take it to the Council.

Rabbi Amswych commented: “For real change to take root, this must be seen as the beginning of a ‘slow-burn’ process which must be kindled over several years rather than a firework which burns itself out in a few seconds”.

Rabbi Newman added: “the Bournemouth decision is a major milestone in the fight against climate change and for a just society. It shows that, if they follow the prophetic vision offered by their tradition, Jews really can be a light unto the world.”

Taken fromThe Movement of Reform Judaism

See also: The Earth Charter - A Faith Perspective
Bournemouth rabbi spearheads faith communities’ climate change response, 01 March, 2007

World Future Councillor and Earth Charter Commissioner Pauline Tangiora addressed the assembled youth and told from her experiences of the Earth Charter drafting process. She particularly highlighted the meetings of indigenous peoples that took place before the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. In their address to the heads of state gathered in Rio the indigenous peoples called for the adoption of an Earth Charter that would be based on indigenous wisdom such as the 7th generation principle and the notion that Earth itself is alive and warrants our care and respect.

Apart of inviting Ms Tangiora and ECI Program Coordinator Michael Slaby to speak to the youth, WFC included the Earth Charter into the conference by displaying the Seeds of Change exhibition and showing parts of the film “A Quiet Revolution” produced by the Earth Council and Soka Gakkai International. During the afternoon session, Slaby also led a working group on climate change and renewable energies and helped the youth to formulate their statements on this crucial topic. The inclusion of the Earth Charter into the program of the youth conference underscored WFC’s commitment to help promote and implement the Earth Charter wherever possible.

For more information, please visit the international website of the World Future Council

The funds that were raised will be split equally to support IAHV’s One-Euro-A-Day program that provides free education for poor children in India and the production of Earth Charter educational materials on sustainable lifestyles. The materials are intended to explore the famous Earth Charter notion on "being more instead of having more", and will be produced within the Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability.

To see some more pictures of the concert, please click here .

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.

• 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.

The Global Peace Initiative of Women convened its second global summit of women spiritual leaders in Jaipur, India on March 6-10. Several hundred leaders from over 50 countries participated in Making Way for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community. The goal was to explore how the leadership of women, and particularly the feminine principles, can bring benefit to the world community, helping to create the platform for global transformation. The gathering was designed as a global reflection, opening with seven hours of prayer, sacred song and meditation. This created a sacred space in which dialogue could take place.

As part of the journey to Jaipur, many of the participants, and particularly those from conflict areas, gathered at the Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi on the day before the Summit's opening for reflection and prayer and to view the journey of Gandhi's life. From there, the group moved on to the Summit in Jaipur.

Prior to the Summit, GPIW also held a youth training in New Delhi led by Dr. Monica Sharma, Director of Leadership and Capacity Development at the United Nations that was attended by 60 youth from over 40 countries. After the summit, GPIW gathered 40 young people from Iraq and held a five-day workshop on peace education. The Earth Charter was used as a background document for both workshops.

During the Summit, delegates from Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Burma, Kenya, Burundi and South Africa shared experiences of their communities' struggles as the spiritual leaders discussed ways to deepen the practice of Ahimsa (nonharm) and Satyagraha, how to break the cycle of violence and penetrate to the roots of conflict, and how to foster the spiritual process of healing and reconciliation.

The Summit provided an ideal platform to brief high-level religious leaders on the Earth Charter, including H.H. Sri Mata Amritanandaymayi Devi (Amma), as well as Imam Hazrat Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, Secretary General of the All India Organization of Imams and Mosques that is said to represent 500.000 Imams of India, reaching out to millions of Muslims in India.

After the summit, Rabbi Soetendorp presented the Earth Charter to several Indian parliamentarians and political leaders, while Michael Slaby met with key religious and environmental organizations such as the TESI Environmental Awareness Movement in Dharamsala.

For more information on the Jaipur Summit, please visit the website of the Global Peace Initiative of Women

„The authors consider the potential and promise of the 2000 UNESCO Earth Charter for the work of the religious educator in situating a ‚common‘ ethical core in a global world. It is argued that the Charter represents a courageous attempt to negotiate a global ethic of universal and mulit-faceted responsibility based ont he foundation of membership of the human family in a common home: the Earth. Both the vision and the methodology of the Charter witness to a capacity for moral discourse across the boundaries of difference. As such, the Charter merits sustained and serious philosophical critique. Accordingly, the religious educator must sensitively support pupils in the challenging task of responding to the expanded ehtical landscape that the Charter presents.“





To purchase a copy of the article, pleaseclick here.



See also David A. Grunewald: A Foucauldian Analysis of Environmental Education: Toward the Socioecological Challenge of the Earth Charter, in Curriculum Inquiery Vol. 34, Issue 1, 2004

David A. Grunewald: Why the Earth Charter Matters to (Multi)Cultural Educators Everywhere: A Rejoinder, in Curriculum Inquiery Vol. 34, Issue 2, 2004

Among the speakers were The Netherlands’ former Prime Minister and Earth Charter Commissioner Ruud Lubbers, Her Royal Highness Princess van Oranje-Nassau and Dr. Katherine Marshall of the Berkley Center for Religion and World Affairs in Washington DC who is a colleague of Rabbi Soetendorp in the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders for Islam-West Dialogue.

In his very last official sermon, Awraham reminisced over his inauguration as Rabbi led by his father Jacob with whom he united after the war, remembered special moments of the forty years of service as Rabbi in his congregation in The Hague, and concluded on a line of hope by citing the final lines of the Earth Charter:

“Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle towards justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.”

"Compassion and love should be the guiding light for humans to live harmoniously with nature. Genuine motivation with a warm heart will make the conservation of the environment
more effective. It should be treated as the life-giving water that nourishes the roots of the Earth Charter."

The Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability seeks to share and spread the light of respect and care for the whole creation, and encourages religious and spiritual communities to collaborate in the creation of just, peaceful and sustainable societies.

On December 1st, the Ecumenical One World Initiative (EOWI) in Germany took over the administrative management of the Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability, employing Michael Slaby as Coordinator for ECI's international program. EOWI was founded in 1976 as one of the first Christian ecumenical initiatives that set out to explore sustainable lifestyles in the Western world.

Having served as Earth Charter Affiliate in Germany since 2001, EOWI is promoting and disseminating the Earth Charter among NGOs, faith groups and educational institutions in Germany and its German-speaking neighbouring countries.

“It is a great pleasure for us to host this international program” says EOWI’s executive director Anja Becker, and adds: “We hope that the program will contribute to the revitalization of the conciliar process of justice, peace and integrity of creation that we are supporting since its launch in 1983.”

Building on EOWI’s long standing history of creating bridges between Germany’s environmental and development-aid organizations on the one and religious organizations and the Churches on the other side, the international program has gained a strategic position to reach out to religious institutions in Germany.
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The report makes two references to the Earth Charter: In the summary of comments to the second panel where Steven Rockefeller participated as a respondent, and in the concluding section on "key recommendations". Rockefeller’s remarks are summarized as an appeal for “the promotion of global ethics as a unifying strategy in the midst of religious and cultural diversity”.

In the key recommendations, this line is taken up as the final and concluding point: The Earth Charter is depicted as an “interesting example” for the “development of a code of conduct based on global ethics”, which could be one of the objectives of an United Nations body for interreligious and intercultural cooperation.

It is not the first time that an UN document refers to the Earth Charter as an important tool for promoting global ethics in an intercultural context: At the World Summit for Sustainable Development, UNEP and UNESCO convened a high-level roundtable on “Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity for Sustainable Development”. In its official background paper on diversity in nature and culture, UNEP concluded with a call for adopting a more holistic and comprehensive approach for sustainable development based on a new ethic of conservation and environmental stewardship:

“There should be the recognition that most of the problems of loss of biodiversity, weakening of cultural diversity and the poverty phenomenon, which have been dealt with separately, are in fact closely connected and relevant to sustainable development and therefore require a holistic and more comprehensive approach for action at all levels.

We also need to identify, and put into practice, ways and means to promote a new ethic of conservation and environmental stewardship, as emphasized in the UN Millennium Declaration. Promotion of the relevant existing instruments, such as the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Earth Charter, might be useful to initiate the process of a new ethic” (pages 14 – 15).

Together with the paper by UNEP and UNESCO, the summary of the interactive hearing can be seen as an important textual base for encouraging the use of the Earth Charter in further UN initiatives on interreligious and intercultural understanding that are being considered, such as the announcement of a “Decade of Dialogue” and the creation of a special UN body or focal unit for interreligious cooperation.

Links and Documents:
Summary of the Interactive Hearing

Steven Rockefeller's presentation at the Interactive Hearing

Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity for Sustainable Development

UN GA Resolution 61/221

To find out more about the Interactive Hearing and read the notes of all speakers and participants, please visit http://www.un.org/ga/president/62/issues/hld-interreligious.shtml

I send sincere greeting to this annual prayer service for the United Nations.

This evening finds me far from New York in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. I have travelled to Latin America to see for myself the terrible toll environmental degradation and climate change are already inflicting on the planet and its people.

I am heartened that all of you have gathered to devote this year’s service to the theme of climate change. By now, the basic facts of global warming are incontestable. But, up close, its effects are doubly unnerving. Last week, I visited Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in South America. It is near the centre of the famous “ozone hole” in the Earth’s atmosphere. This time of year, children have to wear protective clothing against ultraviolet radiation at all times. There are days when parents don’t let them play outside, or even go to school.

Slowing, indeed reversing, these trends have emerged as the defining challenge of our age. It requires both your prayers and your participation. Indeed, success in the fight against climate change is hard to contemplate without the input and energy of men and women of faith.

All of you can help inspire millions of people around the world to become better stewards of our planet. You can guide them towards healthier, more sustainable lifestyles. You can encourage them to conserve more, and to want less. And you can reinforce the belief, fundamental to all religions, that we have a sacred obligation to leave the world a better place for those who will follow.

So, dear friends, let us pray for our world and for its well-being.

And let me leave you with my own gratitude for your continued prayers in support of the United Nations, and its worldwide work for peace.

Published with the courtesy of http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/sgsm11276.doc.htm

With the award, the ICCJ honours Soetendorp’s long standing commitment to promoting a culture of peace and tolerance among people of different faiths. The jury’s official award announcement explicitly recognizes his work for the Earth Charter: “This award is also given in recognition of his early promotion of understanding, through the Earth Charter, that our traditions enjoin us to give credence to our obligation to care for the health of our world so that people of all faiths and cultures can live in peace and prosperity.”

Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, member of the Executive Committee of the ICCJ then shared some personal impressions of his friendship with Soetendorp, and especially hinged on his tireless efforts of working for peace and justice born out of his personal experience of surviving the holocaust as a hidden child.

The medallion was presented to Soetendorp by Dr. Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Minister of Justice of the Netherlands. Ballin stressed Soetendorp’s high moral integrity and influence, and remembered his crucial contribution in the annual opening of the Dutch Parliament, which involves the blessing of religious leaders: “You have done a lot for the Netherlands in promoting a shared vision for justice and peace nationally and in the world.”

The last speaker to address the laureate was the major of The Hague Wim Deetman: “We in The Hague are proud that you enjoy the trust of many religions of the world.”

After receiving the medallion, Soetendorp especially thanked his father Rabbi Jacob Soetendorp, the rebuilder of Jewish life in the Netherlands after the war, and his foster parents who rescued him as a baby in Nazi-occupied Holland. “To them belongs the honour of the award”, he stressed. Soetendorp ended with expressing his full commitment to continuing his work for interfaith understanding and collaboration: “I firmly believe that together we can form a global partnership to care for the earth and one another.”

The 25 participants were relatively new to the Earth Charter, so the main aims of the event were to introduce the Earth Charter as a tool for engagement with sustainability issues within faith and interfaith communities and inspire the participating organizations to become more actively engaged in the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. The aims and mechanisms of the Decade were introduced by the chair of the Earth Charter Council of Trustees in the UK, Dr. Doug Bourn who currently chairs the DESD round table at UNESCO-UK.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Bourn set the tone for the workshop by qualifying it as a journey of sharing and learning: “Some of the key issues of our time have been outlined in the Earth Charter and the Decade on Sustainable Development launched by the United Nations in 2005. One of the aims of this seminar will be to enquire how these two can be linked together.”

• To deepen and expand the global dialogue that led to the formulation of the Earth Charter
• To bring the religions of the world into greater collaboration with each other and with leading secular institutions in addressing the global challenges of our time
• To produce very high-quality education materials that translate the most up-to-date knowledge on global issues into a language of faith and spirituality
• To use the Earth Charter website as a platform for sharing experiences, success-stories and best practices of engaging with sustainability, environmental protection, social justice and peace from a perspective of faith and spirituality

The last two hours were spent in small groups where people discussed how to move forward on the issues of education, endorsements of the Earth Charter and the empowerment of faith communities to become active agents of change. The discussions generated a whole range of activities and project ideas, such as promoting the use of the Earth Charter in teacher training and professional development courses; launching a “bottom-up” strategy of ensuring endorsements of the Earth Charter from the grass-roots to the governmental level; engaging young people with the Earth Charter; and providing faith communities with inspiring case studies on how they could start their own Earth Charter projects. These projects could include the creation of local interfaith action groups that could focus on a specific environmental or social issue of major concern in their local community. Many participants also felt an urgent need to develop a specific website on Earth Charter related activities in the UK.

To follow-up on these ideas, several participants agreed to form a working group of faith communities that could become an active component of Earth Charter UK alongside the existing thematic groups of business, youth, and education. The participants also expressed their interest in institutionalizing the Earth Charter meetings of faith communities at Taplow Court on a yearly basis.

In the face of these challenges, advertisements will be placed on the tubes, trains, stations and airports that project the lives and views of ordinary Muslims, demonstrating how British Muslims are part of the fabric of ordinary, everyday society.

Michael Barry featured on one of the underground posters said, "The central point is that the person who might be selling you your milk or delivering your letters or helping your child who may have had an accident in hospital, may be Muslim. The idea that we're in some sort of stockade, and wearing funny clothes and behaving in a way that is not part of British Society, is simply not true.”

Through images of Muslims in various fields and professions, from medicine to the police service and from art to football, the adverts seek to emphasise that British Muslims are proud of their identity whilst playing their full role in making Britain a more united and prosperous society.

Find out more about the campaign at http://www.islamispeace.org.uk

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the dialogue by calling on the international community to address rising cultural and religious tensions by promoting dialogue and advancing shared values: "We need to rebuild bridges and engage in a sustained and constructive intercultural dialogue, one that stresses shared values and shared aspirations."

Ban also emphasised the enriching nature of religious and cultural diversity, and conculded with an appeal to our common humanity:

"It is time to promote the idea that diversity is a virtue, not a threat. It is time to explain that different religions, belief systems and cultural backgrounds are essential to the richness of the human experience. And it is time to stress that our common humanity is greater – far greater – than our outward differences."

74 high-level government representatives and several organizations with observer status took the floor to present their visions for promoting tolerance and understanding, de-escalating intercultural tensions, and preventing religiously motivated violence and terrorism.

Earth Charter International Council Co-Chair Steven Rockefeller participated in this hearing and responded to a panel on best practices for interreligious dialogue going forward. In his statement, Rockefeller stressed the need for a deepened quest for global ethics and shared values, and highlighted the Earth Charter as an important civil society contribution to the development of a new global ethic: “Shared values are what make community and cooperation possible. In an increasingly interdependent world where our major challenges can only be addressed in and through international cooperation, shared values and global ethics are essential.”

In a longer statement (to be posted on the website of the UN General Assembly), Rockefeller outlined how the Earth Charter Initiative can support the UN in its goal of building a global culture of peace. In particular, he explained the methodology that was used to find a common vision in the great diversity of comments, suggestions and aspirations that were submitted in the global process of drafting the Earth Charter:

We found that people from different cultures and religious traditions often have very different philosophical and religious reasons for embracing ethical values many of which they hold in common. In the Earth Charter consultation process we respected and learned from these differences, but we did not try to bridge them. Instead we focused primarily on reaching agreement regarding the basic ethical principles that should guide conduct in the 21st century.

Building on this instructive methodology, Rockefeller outlined how the Earth Charter's inclusive ethical vision could serve as a framework for intercultural and interreligious initiatives:

Intercultural and interreligious dialogue can be especially effective when attention is focused on where different worldviews overlap regarding ethical values and practical action with reference to common problems. The Earth Charter is evidence that with this approach much can be accomplished in laying an ethical foundation for building community locally, regionally and globally.

ECI will monitor the follow-up, and continue to support the UN and other agencies in the crucial task of bringing the religions of the world into closer cooperation with each other -- and with leading secular institutions -- to build just, peaceful and sustainable communities.

Background information on the high level dialogue can be found at http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/follow-up/hld-interreligious.shtml

To read the full text of UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon's opening remarks, go to http://www0.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=134

The whole dialogue including the hearing was recorded on video and can be watched at: http://www.un.org/webcast/ga.html