Orthodox Perspectives on Environmental Concerns
Report of the WCC Inter-Orthodox Consultation, Sofia, Bulgaria, October 1987 (Extracts)
Excerpt: “We believe that the created world itself is a ‘mystery’ originating in the sovereign will of God accomplished by the action (energia) of the Holy Trinity. We confess in the NiceneConstantinopolitan creed (325/381) that the Father is the “Creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible”, the Son “He through whom all things were made”, and the Holy Spirit, the “Creator of life” (zoopion).”
by Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff
Excerpt: “The engagement of the Orthodox Church with environmental issues must be one of the most positive things that has happened in the past few decades. It is something to be eagerly welcomed, not only because of the importance of these issues, but also because what we are seeing here is, potentially at least, very much a two-way process.”
by Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff
Excerpt: “To talk about “saving the earth” is hardly an exaggeration. Flooding due to global warming threatens vast areas of coastland. An estimated ten percent of all species are threatened with extinction. Irreplaceable forests vanish by the acre every second. Great rivers no longer reach the sea because their water is taken for irrigation, industry, or to water lawns.”
by Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon
Excerpt: “The development of ecological awareness and sensitivity in the last years has led to the use of various models of speaking about the relation of the human being to nature. The prevailing one among these models is that of steward: the human being is the steward of creation. This terminology has become widespread not only among secular but also among religious ecologists, especially among the latter.”
by Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon
Excerpt: “why and how has humankind reached such a deplorable situation in which its most beautiful cultural achievements can exist side by side – for how long, we may wonder? – with the worst and saddest environmental destruction? How is it possible that the same human being can create an admirable culture and destroy their natural environment at the same time?”
by Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia
Excerpt: “‘It is imperative’, states The Earth Charter (2001), ‘that we, peoples of the Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.’ Yes, indeed: in all our ecological endeavours we are called to keep in view not only ourselves and our immediate needs but also, much more, the well-being and happiness of women, men and children as yet unborn.”
by Philip Sherrard
Excerpt: “We are in the throes of a crisis of the most appalling dimensions. We tend to call this crisis the ecological crisis and this is a fair description in so far as its effects are manifest above all in the ecological sphere. For here the message is quite clear: our entire way of life is humanly and environmentally suicidal, and unless we change it radically there is no way in which we can avoid catastrophe. Unhappily, we do not yet appear to have realized the urgency of the need for change…”
A joint declaration signed on June 10, 2002 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope John Paul II
Excerpt: “We are gathered here today in the spirit of peace for the good of all human beings and for the care of creation. At this moment in history, at the beginning of the third millennium, we are saddened to see the daily suffering of a great number of people from violence, starvation, poverty, and disease.”
by Dr. Eve Tibbs
Excerpt: “Time Magazine recently included His All Holiness, Bartholomeos I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, together with the Dalai Lama, in the “Time 100″ list of the world’s most influential persons (May 12, 2008) as the only two international religious figures. Patriarch Bartholomew, spokesperson for Orthodox Christians worldwide, was included for his continuing and vocal support of protecting the global environment.”