30.01.2020

Confessing hope for the earth

The number of Amazon rainforest fires have increased by 85% in just one year. The bushfires in Australia have killed more than a billion animals.  Global carbon emissions have hit an all-time high in 2019 by pumping an estimated 36.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. News about the global climate emergency and its impacts on living conditions have reached every household meanwhile. Churches worldwide have been active globally since many years to articulate concerns about environmental protection, to suggest new ways of climate adaptation and to promote new forms of an ecological civilization which are urgently needed.

In June 2019 an international theological group of experts, NGO and church representatives met in Wuppertal to develop common perspectives on how to respond theologically and politically to the global climate emergency. Under the title “Kairos for creation - Confessing hope for the earth“ this month a documentation of the Wuppertal conference, which took place on the 16.-19^th of June 2019 is published which now can be ordered from the publisher Foedus Verlag or downloaded for free from this website.

The international and ecumenical conference on eco-theology, ethics of sustainability and eco-friendly churches which took place in June 2019 in Wuppertal/Germany was organized jointly by Bread for the World, the Protestant Association of Churches and Mission (EMW), the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), United Evangelical Mission (UEM) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). It was a conference with lasting impressions, enriching and encouraging experiences of sharing and a remarkable outcome in content:

51 participants from over 22 different countries, men and women from different cultural, denominational and religious backgrounds, theologians, eco-activists, scientists and representatives of Faith Based Organizations gathered to share their insights, their experiences, their convictions, their doubts, their joy and their sorrows about fundamental eco-theological questions which are becoming more and more important and crucial for the continuation of life in our world, which is God’s creation.

At the end of the conference the participants adopted the “Wuppertal Call: Kairos for creation – Confessing Hope for the Earth” which recommends to the World Council of Churches (WCC) to declare a “Decade for the Healing of Creation”.

35 contributions from different cultural, confessional and regional backgrounds of this conference are now published in the 362 pages publication.

The documentation is edited by Louk Andrianos, Michael Biehl, Ruth Gütter, Jochen Motte, Andar Parlindungan, Thomas Sandner, Juliane Stork and Dietrich Werner. “With this documentation we want to strengthen all those who want to deepen their eco-theological reflections and to encourage actions for more climate justice and sustainability in the world wide ecumenical movement” the editors are underlining.