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December 21, 2007
NEW YORK -- In a visit this week to Church World Service headquarters, World Council of Churches head Dr. Samuel Kobia called concerns about climate change "a matter of faith" and said the Christian faith community must be at the vanguard of the response.
"We have seen that when we become careless the effect is what we are seeing now with global warming. I think as Christians we should be the ones to lead the way so that others then can follow because for us it is not just a matter of political or economic or ecological concern; it is a matter of faith," Kobia said.
Kobia was in the United States for meetings with heads of churches and other ecumenical leaders, including Church World Service Executive Director and CEO John L. McCullough.
Although the subject has only recently become a focus of global concern, Kobia emphasized that the WCC is not a newcomer to the debate: "The WCC has had a program around climate change since 1992. We have books on eco-theology. We called the program Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. We talked about the danger the approach to development has to the integrity of creation. Therefore, for us it is not a new idea."
With more than a decade of study and concern about climate change, the council is well positioned to lead a global ecumenical response to degradation of the environment.
Kobia says he "would like to invite the entire Christian community to be involved in the work on climate change. It is a gospel imperative for churches to be involved in the work on climate change. It is a gospel imperative because human beings are entrusted with the rest of God's creation. It is there for us not to plunder and not to dominate, but to care."
The World Council of Churches http://www.oikoumene.org/en/home.html is a fellowship of churches representing over 560 million Christians around the world.
Church World Service www.churchworldservice.org is a humanitarian agency supported by public donations, grants, and by 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican churches and communions in the United States.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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