October 29th, 2009
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
For centuries, different religions have argued about many issues and even gone to war over some of them. Next week however, they will put it all aside and come together for a common cause — sustainability.
On Monday, Nov. 2, a group of 200 religious leaders from all around the world will meet for three days at Windsor Castle for an interfaith climate celebration. “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet” will be hosted by Prince Philip and is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Prince Philip in 1995 to link conservation and ecology with faith. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations will also be in attendance.
Event organizers hope are gathering the religious leaders in order to present and discuss 30 long-term climate plans for their communities. The group believes that climate change is not only a pressing environmental problem, but also a moral one.
The religions represented at the celebration include Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism and Sikhism.
“It’s being called a celebration because despite the gloom surrounding so much environmental talk, there is in fact a lot to be hopeful for, and positive about. These initiatives, with their emphasis on long-term practical action, offer a great deal of hope for the future. Also, it can be too easy for individuals to feel crushed by the scale of the environmental challenge ahead - yet without a sense of hope, we cannot motivate people – or ourselves – to make the lifestyle changes needed,” said Susie Weldon, spokesperson for the ARC.
Having to be not only environmentally conscious about the food prepared, caterers also must be ethical and faith-consistent. Throughout all three days of the celebration, all the food will be vegetarian and free-range. Castle caterers are aiming for most of the food to be local, organic, and fair-trade. Also, there will be no bottled water provided to attendants.
The Mercure Castle Hotel, Windsor, will host the welcome dinner on Monday — its first-ever vegetarian banquet. Likewise, Tuesday the group will attend a banquet at Windsor Castle prepared by Edible Food Design, one of the castle’s catering companies, which will be the first vegan meal prepared for a Royal banquet. The vegan meal includes roasted pear salad with cobnuts and chicory, Portobello mushrooms stuffed with artichoke and herbs, pearl barley risotto and organic wine.
The event is “the first major, internationally coordinated commitment by the religions to the environment and aims to shape the behavior and attitudes of the faithful for generations to come,” according to ARC’s website.
Some of the unique environmental initiatives that will be announced include:
- new faith-based eco-labeling systems for Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism
- 8.5 million trees to be planted in Tanzania
- all Daoist temples in China to be solar powered
- 10 Muslim cities to be chosen to lead implementation of the Muslim Seven Year Action Plan
- moves to source ecologically sustainable fuel sources for Sikh gurdwaras in India, which feed 30 million poor people every day
With more than 6.5 billion people worldwide, the majority of them belong to one faith or another. There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.34 billion Muslims, more than 950 million Hindus, 50-70 million Daoists, 24 million Sikhs and 13 million Jews, according to the Atlas of Religion.
“Many of the faiths with which ARC works are part of communities at the forefront of climate change or at the very least, environmental degradation due to deforestation, flooding, crop failures, drought. They know firsthand what kind of impact this has on people in vulnerable countries. The Windsor Celebration will bring together people who have a real insight into the effects of climate change from very diverse parts of the world,” said Weldon.
“The world’s faiths joined together in this cause – if viewed in terms of sheer numbers of people – could become the planet’s largest civil society movement for change. With their unparalleled presence throughout the world, the world’s religions could be the decisive force that helps top the scales in favor of a world of climate safety and justice for future generations… this event will be one for the history books,” said UNDP Assistant Secretary-General Olav Kjorven in a press release.
The celebration precedes the climate-change discussions that will take place in Copenhagen in December. Like many other climate events prior to December, the celebration hopes to make an impact on key leaders who will be attending Copenhagen.
“…the faiths aren’t waiting for governments to finish arguing about what’s needed or who should pay for it. They’re getting on with doing what they can to help the environment, without asking other people to commit to action first but saying ‘this is what we can do and we will do it’,” said Weldon.
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media
