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.

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 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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.