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To help and guide the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� and broader community as it thinks through other visions for a new post-2020 world, the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP), its Specialist Group on Religions, Spirituality, Environmental Conservation and Climate Justice (ReSpECC) and the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Nature-Culture Initiative, held a virtual dialogue on June 25, 2020, to talk with some of ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s faith-based member organizations, members of the ReSpECC Specialist Group and others.  

As the UN Secretary General stated, the current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call (message on International Mother Earth Day). Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility (HH Dalai Lama), and it is the responsibility of each one of us to learn from it and grow in our humanity and in our compassion.

Fostering shared responsibilities to rebuild our troubled relationship with nature is a cause that is uniting people around the world (Rev. James Shri Baghwan, Pacific Council of Churches).

No, we don’t want to go back to normal (Pujya Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati) – but what does a new normal look like? How do we emerge from our homes, from this time under lockdown, and be part of creating a new, earth-centered, normal, based on the values and ethics of our diverse faiths and spiritualities? As His Holy Father Pope Francis asked How can we restore a harmonious relationship with the earth and with the rest of humanity? And what does this mean for ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��? What’s ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s role in building a new normal? And what will conservation look like post-2020?

To talk about all this and more, some of ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s faith-based member organizations, members of the ReSpECC Specialist Group, and others, including: A Rocha International, Brahma Kumaris, UNEP Faith for Earth, Quaker Institute for the Future, Gaia Foundation, Pacific Conference of Churches, Soka Gakkai International, Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences participated in this ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Virtual Dialogue and CESP members were invited to join the dialogue.

The discussion was moderated by Jessica Sweidan, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Patron of Nature, and hosted by Dr Grethel Aguilar, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s Acting Director General, Kristen Walker-Painemilla, Chair of UCN CEESP, and Liza Zogib, Chair of ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� CEESP – ReSpECC. Speakers included:

• Dr Fazlun Khalid, Founder, Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Science
• Valériane Bernard and Sonja Ohlsson, Brahma Kumaris
• Reweaving our Ecological Mat in the Pacific (Rev. James Bhagwan)
• Dave Bookless, Director of Theology at A Rocha International, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� member
• Alexandra Masako Goossens-Ishii, Soka Gakkai International (Buddhist network)
• Lindsey Fielder Cook & Sara Jolena Sequoia Wolcott, Quaker UN office & Sequoia Samanvaya
• Iyad Abu Moghli, Director of Faith for Earth, UNEP

More than ever before, we need Solidarity, Unity, and Change. Click on the image below for the recording of the dialogue.

[1] Many faith traditions would say all our thinking should be God-centred, but in terms of our practical decisions we acknowledge speaking of being earth-centered is important to highlight as opposed to being human-centered.