Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Water Network, spoke at the G20 Interfaith Forum, held 7-9 June in Tokyo. This year’s theme was “Peace, People, Planet: Pathways Forward.” About 2,000 participants attend the gathering, which precedes the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The interfaith forum submitted recommendations for G20 leaders.
The G20 Interfaith Forum offers an annual platform through which a network of religiously linked institutions and initiatives engage on global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
The G20 Interfaith Forum builds on the vital roles that religious institutions and beliefs play in world affairs, reflecting their rich diversity of institutions, ideas, and values.
Beginning in Australia in 2014, the G20 Interfaith Forum has convened annually in the G20 host country. The forums have considered wide-ranging agendas, including economic models and systems, the environment, women, families, children, work, humanitarian aid, health, education, freedom of religion or belief, global security, governance, human rights, and the rule of law.
Suna spoke as part of a panel on “Food and Water: Resources of Life.” He emphasised two good practices of the Ecumenical Water Network: promoting the concept of Blue Communities and the “10 Commandments of Food.”
Suna attributed the loss of forests the size of 30 football fields every minute, to meat industries, encouraging participants to eat locally-sourced food to reduce the water footprint. “Given that 70% of fresh water is used for agriculture and food production and only 10% for drinking and sanitation, we can save a lot of water by choosing our food wisely,” he said.
He urged participants to become “Blue Communities” by respecting the human right to water and saying no to the privatisation of water and to the bottled water industries.
Learn more about the WCC's Ecumenical Water Network
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.
Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press
Click here to see the SEC's short film The Seed.
Related
Introducing the SEC's Eightfold Path of Environmental Action
Right Understanding: Knowing the facts about climate change
Right Thought: How we think about the natural world
Right Speech: Effective environmental communications
Right Action: Making smaller footprints
Right Works: Efforts that benefit the planet
Right Effort: Choosing a cause
Right Concentration: Staying focused on creation
Right Mindfulness: Managing ecological stress
No comments:
Post a Comment