Interfaith Conference on the Environment

To Unite Faith Leaders in Common Vision

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

BOSTON - This Sunday, The Massachusetts Interfaith Environmental Network (MIEN) will continue its collaborative effort toward safeguarding a healthier planet for all. Over the past year, the very diverse range of activists who make up this organization have spearheaded individual efforts to promote environmental awareness in their institutions and congregations. From 1-6 p.m. at the St. Anthony Shrine in downtown Boston, these religious and social leaders will attend workshops and discussions as they compare notes and further refine their mission.

Workshops at the symposium, titled “Acting from Our Faith Traditions to Protect Our Health and Environment,” will concentrate on strategic concerns for the group, which include the protection of children from illnesses caused by environmental toxins, the reduction of pollutants in buildings and homes, and the phenomenon of global warming.

Groups endorsing this effort include the CJP, the Greater Boston Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL, a JCRC program), Environmental Partnerships, Inc., the Massachusetts Council of Churches, Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light, Religious Witness for the Earth, Saint Anthony Cares - Franciscan Center for Social Concerns, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Boston’s Old West Church UMC and the Saint Anthony Shrine.

Delivering the keynote address will be The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, President and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. “For persons of faith,” said Charleston, “whatever their religious tradition may be, taking up action for the sake of our environment is not optional: it is foundational. It will be the ground on which the relevance of our witness either stands or falls in this century.”

Bishop Charleston, who is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, comes from a family with a long history of service in the Christian Native American community. He has served as Chaplain of Trinity College in Hartford as well as Assistant Bishop of Connecticut; prior to these posts he was the Diocesan Bishop of Alaska for many years.

“While most communities of faith remain focused on the agenda of the moment,” he continued, “the environmental crisis is at the root of almost all issues confronting religion today. World hunger, global poverty, the use of oil and other natural resources, international economic struggle, even terrorism all have direct connections to the web of environmental realities that circle our globe. We ignore those realities at our own peril.”

The inception of this interfaith alliance occurred at an Oct. 2001 conference at the national headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association on Beacon St., at which writer and energy expert Amory Lovins spoke.

“From there,” said COEJL Director Judy Lehrer, “we began meeting on a monthly basis at different churches and offices. Each meeting drew a number of participants, and today, in all, over fifty people from over 15 churches, synagogues and other religious organizations have joined in at one point or another in our discussions and planning.”

Refreshments will be served at the conference; the requested registration fee is $15 per person.

“As long as we allow the degradation of the planet to continue,” said Charleston, “we aid and abet the ongoing cycles of strife and violence that seem to endlessly challenge our shared values of peace, justice and reconciliation. The message is clear: people of faith must unite to work with God in the healing of the Earth. Until we do, we will perpetuate the world's suffering. Unless we do, our prayers will remain unanswered.”

The St. Anthony Shrine, located at 100 Arch St., is off Summer St., near Downtown Crossing. Called "The Workers' Chapel," it is a center for Roman Catholic Ministry in Boston, directed by the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Boston. For more information on the conference, please call COEJL at 617-457-8670, email coejl@jcrcboston.org, or visit www.religiouswitness.org/massinterfaith.