Patriarch Bartholomew’s Call to Action for Environmental and Human Justice

Speaking astatine the Concordia Summit, Bartholomew highlighted the “painfully destructive” consequences of clime change. Credit: Greek Reporter

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew delivered a connection focused connected the intersection of biology responsibility, planetary conflicts, and the relation of religion and interdependency.

Speaking astatine the Concordia Annual Summit successful New York connected Monday, Bartholomew emphasized the interconnectedness of each beingness connected Earth, from the deepest oceans to the polar crystal caps. He utilized the Greek word oikoumeni, which means “the spot wherever 1 abides astatine home,” to exemplify that the satellite is simply a shared location for each sentient beings.

He highlighted the “painfully destructive” consequences of clime change, citing circumstantial examples similar the wildfires successful Los Angeles and Chios, Greece, arsenic good arsenic the expanding strength of hurricanes and typhoons. He grounded this interest successful the Orthodox Christian tradition, which views the worldly beingness arsenic inherently “very good,” linking it to the Genesis narrative.

“We cannot, and we volition not, relent successful our pursuit of biology justness and work passim the full planetary community, for this is what it means, successful part, to beryllium ecumenical successful the archetypal place.”

The Patriarch argued that caring for the situation cannot beryllium separated from caring for the radical who inhabit it. He stated, “To grant the onshore without honoring the quality beings who dwell successful that land… is simply a madness that afflicts our world.”

Bartholomew argued that what are often called “wars of religion” are seldom fought for genuine spiritual reasons. Instead, helium stated that “religion becomes a surface down which acheronian forces of greed, prejudice, and aggression enactment their misery successful the world.”

The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s committedness to the situation is “indivisibly linked” to its enactment for the state and self-determination of the Ukrainian people. Credit: Greek Reporter

Patriarch Bartholomew blasts the Russian Orthodox Church connected Ukraine

This taxable straight led into his critique of the Russian Orthodox Church’s enactment for the warfare successful Ukraine.

Bartholomew addressed the warfare successful Ukraine arsenic a premier illustration of however religion tin beryllium co-opted by secular powerfulness for unjust purposes. He accused the Church of Russia of providing “cover for the Russian State’s warfare against Ukraine,” labeling the ideology of Rússkiy Mir arsenic an “anachronistic imperial yearning” and “ethno-phyletism of the worst kind.”

He linked the biology degradation caused by the warfare to the quality loss, reiterating that the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s committedness to the situation is “indivisibly linked” to its enactment for the state and self-determination of the Ukrainian people, which led to the granting of independency to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church successful 2019.

He concluded by praising the Concordia Summit’s exemplary of “Convene,” “Connect,” and “Create” arsenic a testament to humanity’s capableness to lick analyzable problems together. He stressed that these actions—convening to listen, connecting to find communal ground, and creating solutions—are rooted successful the “fundamental information of our interdependency.”

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