It seems strange, therefore, that as Christian churches celebrate the fundamental events of the revelation of God in Christ, there has been no day and time in the liturgical calendar when Christians specifically remembered God as Creator. A start was made to rectify this in 1989 when the then Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Dimitrios 1, suggested to all Churches that they observe 1 September, the Orthodox Church’s first day of its ecclesiastical year, as a day ‘of the protection of the natural environment’. On this day they would offer ‘prayers and supplications to the Maker of all, both in thanksgiving for the great gift of creation and in petition for its protection and salvation.’
Ten years later, the European Christian Environmental Network widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a ‘Time for Creation’ stretching from 1 September to the second Sunday in October, a time especially extended to enable it to include the Feast Day of St Francis, patron saint of animals and ecology.
Be praised, my Lord God in and through all your creatures especially among them, through noble Brother Sun by whom you light the day in his radiant splendid beauty he reminds us, Lord, of you.
Be praised, my Lord God, through Sister Moon and all the stars, You have made the sky shine in their lovely light.
In Brother Wind be praised, my Lord, and in the air, in clouds and calm, in all the weather moods that cherish life.
Laudes Creaturarum, St Francis of Assisi
Christ’s demands go beyond the simple claims of justice, they require that any sacrifices be distributed according to capacity. This means that the main burdens of responsible action to help and protect our planet will fall on those in the more highly developed countries whatever their historical or present role in causing environmental degradation.
An Islamic Perspective, Harfiyah Haleem
(Based on the Muslim Declaration on Nature, Assisi 1976)
We are not masters of this Earth; it does not belong to us to do what we wish. It belongs to God and He has entrusted us with its safekeeping.
The essence of Islamic teaching is that the entire universe is God’s creation. Allah makes the waters flow upon the earth, upholds the heavens, makes the rain fall and keeps the boundaries between day and night. The whole of the rich and wonderful universe belongs to God, its maker, submits to Him and glorifies Him. It is God who created the plants and the animals in their pairs and gave them the means to multiply. Then God created mankind - a very special creation because mankind alone was created with reason and the power to think and even the means to turn against his Creator. Mankind has the potential to acquire a status higher than that of the angels or sink lower than the lowliest of the beasts.
The word ‘Islām’ has the dual meaning of submission and peace. Mankind is a specially honoured creation of Allah. But still we are God’s creation and we can only properly understand ourselves when we recognise that our proper condition is one of submission to the God who made us. We are not masters of this Earth; it does not belong to us to do what we wish. It belongs to God and He has entrusted us with its safekeeping. We bear the burden of responsibility for the way in which we use or abuse the trust of God (amānah).
The central concept of Islam is tawhīd or the Unity of God. Allah is One: and His Unity is also reflected in the unity of mankind, all sprung from the same soul, and the unity of man and nature, all creatures of God. His human trustees are responsible for upholding the unity and balance (mīzān) of His creation, the integrity of the Earth, its flora and fauna, its wildlife and natural environment. We court disaster in this life (dunya) and the next (ākhirah) if we corrupt the balance and harmony of God’s creation around us (‘the environment’).
So unity, trusteeship, balance and accountability (tawhīd, amānah, mīzān and ākhirah), are the pillars of the environmental ethics of Islam. They constitute the basic values taught by the Qur’ān and the Prophet Muhammad and translated into practical injunctions in the Sharī’ah.
The Lambeth Declaration
The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a meeting of faith leaders and faith-based and community organisations at Lambeth Palace on 29 October 2009 to discuss the response of faith communities to environmental issues. As a result the meeting agreed The Lambeth Declaration.
Faith communities have a crucial role to play in pressing for changes in behaviour at every level of society and in every economic sector. We all have a responsibility to learn how to live and develop sustainably in a world of finite resources. Building on the examples of local and international action to live and to work together The Lambeth Declaration calls on the faith community to:
To help to achieve these ends we agree to use today’s meeting as the first step in an ongoing process of collaboration. We believe our communities can be key agents of change and urge the Government wherever possible to support our efforts to build capacity and commitment to reduce carbon emissions, raise awareness and promote sustainable practice.
Chapter 1
Sustainability and Waste
Sustainability has become one of today’s most overused words as the people of the world recognise – at last – that the planet’s natural resources are finite. We see too that many people have lifestyles which far exceed their real needs and are quite out of proportion to those of others. For our children’s sake and the sakes of our children’s children, we must look at how we live now, and consider the demands we make on the planet we share.
Because what we do and where we live differs from person to person, household to household, there can be few hard and fast rules. Living our lives in a sustainable way needs everyone to draw up their own basic rules and whilst many of these can be based on good old common sense, faiths will often provide guidelines for sustainable living which have been there through the ages and which include wasting less and buying only what we need. We must know our limits and live within them.
Why has it taken us so long to realise this? The writings of the Abrahamic faiths show that Jews, Christians and Muslims have always been taught to think about sustainability and waste as a matter of belief and survival. The texts that guided our forefathers are as relevant today as they were when they were written – maybe more so!
Jewish
We are guests here and must leave things as we found them. If there is one idea the monotheistic faiths might teach the world it would be this:
The