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US Tour

Owner of For Sustainable Development — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 05:19:44 +0000

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Elijah Interfaith Institute, aims to undertake a North American Speaking Tour on Interfaith Environmental Perspectives for late 2011 or early 2012. The project will involve a group of five religious leaders from five faiths speaking as interfaith panels on environmental sustainability from religious perspectives. The Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu religious leaders will appear at community wide events at a range of secular and religious institutions that will be open to the general public.

The tour will likely include New York City, northern New Jersey, Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and possibly other cities. The religious leaders will be in each city for about two days, for a total tour duration of 10 days. This project will generate significant public and media interest, especially given the profiles of many of the religious figures. Many sit on the Elijah Interfaith Institute’s World Board of Religious Leaders.

UN Climate Summit

Owner of For Sustainable Development — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 05:14:52 +0000

The Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change (www.interfaithdeclaration.org) is working to convene leading world religious leaders at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa in November, 2011. Invitees include the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jewish religious leaders. The presence of some of these religious leaders at the conference will encourage both religious adherents and political leaders to act on climate change. We plan to hold press and other events inside and outside of the UN climate change conference. The Exec. Director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development collaborates with the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change and serves as its Middle East coordinator.

Emerging Leaders Project

Owner of For Sustainable Development — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:54:59 +0000

The Emerging Religious Leaders Sustainability Project brings together Muslim, Christian, and Jewish seminary students from Israel and the West Bank for a series of ten interactive seminars on human coexistence and environmental sustainability. The seminars, spread out over six months and centered in Jerusalem, will focus on how we live on the land (environmental sustainability) and how we live together (human sustainability). The seminars will incorporate sources of profound wisdom and teaching concerning harmony and balance with nature that have arisen in several religions across space and time. Five of the sessions will include experiential, on-the-ground explorations of contemporary ecological and social challenges in and around Jerusalem, led by experts from each of the three faiths. Human sustainability topics may relate to demographic shifts, social integration, and habitation patterns. Environmental sustainability topics may relate to water and air pollution, access to green spaces, and waste production, recycling and disposal. Five of the sessions, to be held at either the Jerusalem Intercultural Center or the Van Leer Institute, will involve group discussions, joint learning and presentations about Jewish, Muslim, and Christian teachings on these issues. Initial meetings will be devoted to breaking down barriers between the participants through group-building activities, including a ropes-course component. The concluding outdoor seminar will involve an overnight camping experience. The facilitators or teachers of the workshops will come from all three faiths.

The institutions being approached are:

* Palestinian Imam training institutions

* Al Qasemi Academy

* Sufi Centre, Nazareth

* Ecole Biblique Archeologique Francaise

* Tantur Ecumenical Institute * Studium Biblicum Franciscanum

* Latin Patriarchate Seminary

* Beit Morasha of Jerusalem * Pontifical Biblical Institute

* Hagia Maria Sion (Dormition) Abbey

* Cremisan Theological College

* Mosaica

* Sulaam Yaakov Rabbinical School

* Hebrew Union College

* Mar Elias College

* Jerusalem University College

The Interfaith Climate Change Forum

Owner of For Sustainable Development — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:19:04 +0000

Shared Earth, Common Destiny: Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Leaders Speak Out on the Environment Interfaith Environmental Forum sees launch of Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development Jerusalem

– July 25th, 2011: Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders today spoke out on environmental issues on a joint panel at an Interfaith Environmental Forum in Jerusalem. The panelists, members of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, were Bishop William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Religious Affairs Haj Salah Zuheika, and American Jewish Committee International Director of Inter-religious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen. The Forum also saw the launch of the new Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. Prolonged drought, the recent fires in the north, the drying up of rivers, and significant ecological changes all underscore the Holy Land’s particular vulnerability to environmental changes. The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL) recently endorsed a Holy Land Declaration on Climate Change, which articulates a religious call, based on the respective teachings of the Abrahamic faiths, for action to address climate change. For the Declaration text, go to www.interfaithsustain.com

Rabbi Rosen said, “Our responsibility to future generations is a cardinal tenet of our respective religious heritages.”

Bishop Shomali said, “We are accountable for how we use this Earth. The earth is like our home, and those who live in the same home should know how to live together. The main religions should study ecological issues together because we have a common destiny. We need to put all of our energies together to solve the environmental crisis, which is ethical, moral, and spiritual.”

Haj Zuheika spoke about the roots of environmental awareness in the Koran, and contemporary environmental challenges in the Middle East.

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development promotes the cooperation and training of religious leaders, teachers, and seminary students on environmental and human sustainability. More information about its projects is available on the website www.interfaithsustain.com Its director, Rabbi Yonatan Neril, said, “This event shows how religions can be a force for positive change in the world.” The CRIHL represents the high religious authorities of the Holy Land: the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs (Waqf), the Palestinian Sharia Courts and the assembly of the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem.

The event was held at The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=230987