Asociación PAZ y ESPERANZA/ALC
LIMA
Forwarded by Rolando Perez:
Martin Kopp, representing the Lutheran World Federation at COP 20, spoke of how faith communities worldwide joined together through fasting and praying for the climate to mark the first day of the UNFCCC COP 20. Kopp spoke at the press conference where world religious leaders were present.
Kopp, who also represents the “Fast for the Climate” campaign said: ‘Our desire as Christians is that God’s reign be visible in all aspects of our lives every day and we believe that caring for his creation is an essential part of our Christian responsibility.’
Furthermore, Kopp expressed that with the help of God we can find a way to construct a big platform on which we can demand that the world’s political leaders take good decisions that permit all people to dream of a just and sustainable world; a greener world.
Mohamed Adow, Senior Climate Change advisor for Christian Aid, noted that the initiative “Fast for the Climate” is building up a big movement of intercessors for the rights of the people who suffer because of the changing climate.
“As part of the global community of Christian Leaders we can inspire the world as part of a legacy of prophets such as Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought against a system that discriminated and isolated the rights of the black community in the United States”, said Adow. “We also take inspiration from William Wilberforce, the political Christian leader of the flagship campaign to end slavery.”
The “Fast for the Climate” initiative received the support of Peruvian Evangelical leaders of the National Evangelical Council of Peru (CONEP) and of the National Union of Christian Evangelical Churches, Peru (UNICEP).
The President of CONEP, Reverend Enrique Alva Callupe, supported the campaign, stating that prayer is fundamental to the church: “fasting is part of intercession.” Alva said that we are praying that the Spirit would enlighten the thoughts of the political decision makers in this COP in order to assume their responsibility to seek a good agreement for all of humanity, and added: “We hope that the representatives of each country will make decisions to mitigate the impacts of the changing climate.”
Manuel Gutiérrez, President of UNICEP, expressed his support for the initiative to “Fast for the Climate”: “We need God’s intervention in the climate crisis that we face.” It is part of creating awareness in the world government leaders who have the main responsibility to urgently make agreements to help stop the effects of the changing climate, he said.
The “Fast for the Climate” campaign is an inter-religious initiative that seeks to unite people of different religions as a spiritual exercise in solidarity with the victims of climate change, gearing up towards the milestone of COP 21, which will be held in Paris in December, 2015.
The Geneva based World Council of Churches is one of the promoters of this initiative along with other global ecumenical organisations.
Source: Asociacion PAZ Y ESPERANZA: http://www.pazyesperanza.org/
Photo: Fast for the Climate (LWF Sean Hawkey)
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