WelCom December 2021
Pictured earlier this year, Fr Ron Bennett (second left) with fellow Abrahamic faith members at a ‘peacenic’ in Wellington. The annual peacenic fosters friendships amongst the various faith communities by ‘breaking bread’ in pleasant outdoor surroundings. Photo: Supplied
Fr Ron Bennett
Followers of the Jewish, Christian, and Moslem religions have a lot common – the most obvious being Abraham, with whom our journey of faith begins. Abraham is revered in all three faiths as the man of faith to whom God promised countless descendants.
Because of that closeness of our common ancestor, local Jews, Christians, and Moslems meet frequently through the Abrahamic Council, to share what they have in common and how to work together for peace, better understanding of each other’s traditions, and to care for creation.
The Wellington Abrahamic Council recently held a hui to find out what wisdom these three historic religions could shed on this most important topic of our time – climate change and stewardship of Planet Earth. It was an opportunity to meet with people from other faith communities and find out how they are grappling with this issue.
From an initial presentation by leaders of each faith community, it became obvious that sustainability and looking after what God has given us, provided a rationale and a motivation to be fully involved in looking after our planet.
The meeting came up with several eco principles for faith communities as something we must all do – not to the side of our faith but rather towards the centre. We need to do this as a collective and not leave it to individuals.
‘Eco stewardship’ is worship because the world is God’s creation and belongs to God. We are the stewards – not the owner and creator – of Planet Earth. Any planned actions to be a more eco-centric society must not disadvantage the poorer groups in our society. We start at an individual level but work out from there to our faith communities and beyond. This needs to be part of who we are, not an afterthought.
Each congregation or group should review the environmental impact of their activities or plant, including transport, by which these are assessed by its members, to progressively move towards having a minimal ecological footprint as a group. We all need to commit to this as a long-term aim.
Fr Ron Bennett is a member of the Wellington Abrahamic Council and parish priest of the Catholic Parish of Ōtari, Wellington.