The Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch has called on the church to pray for God’s blessing on the UN climate change conference in December “so that the industrially developed countries may co-operate with developing countries in reducing harmful polluting emissions, that there may exist the will to raise and manage wisely the funds required for the necessary measures, and that all may work together to ensure that our children enjoy the goods of the earth that we leave behind for them.”
In a message issued on September 1st, Archbishop Bartholomew I said there must be justice and love in all aspects of economic activity. “Let us all renew our commitment to work together and bring about the changes we pray for, to reject everything that is harming the creation, to alter the way we think and thus drastically to alter the way we live.”
The current crisis offered an opportunity for us to deal with problems in a different way. There was a need to bring love into all our dealings – “the love that inspires courage and compassion”.
“We have rendered the Market the centre of our interest, our activities and, finally, of our life, forgetting that this choice of ours will affect the lives of future generations, limiting the number of their choices that would probably be more oriented towards the well-being of man as well as the creation,” he wrote.
“Our human economy, which has made us consumers, is failing. The divine economy, which has made us in the image of the loving Creator, calls us to love and care for all creation. The image we have of ourselves is reflected in the way we treat the creation. If we believe that we are no more than consumers, then we shall seek fulfilment in consuming the whole earth; but if we believe we are made in the image of God, we shall act with care and compassion, striving to become what we are created to be.”
To read the full text of the message, see
http://www.ec-patr.org/docdisplay.php?lang=en&id=1112&tla=en.