Approaching COP 26 - Faith organisations are joining the call for prayer, reflection and action

INSPIRED FAITH ACTION TOWARDS COP26 

An online webinar organised by the Interfaith Liaison Committee (ILC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held on Monday 27 September 

Brooke Prentis - CEO of Common Grace.

"As Aboriginal peoples we were placed here by the Creator since time immemorial, since the beginning of time, and according to science over 65,000 years.  Creator created the boundaries of our nations and these boundaries are embedded in the landscape – mountain ranges, water ways, tree lines."

QUESTION: From your perspective as an Australian Aboriginal Christian leader, how do you engage with COP26 and how to make sure this COP26 is going to create inclusive results and real impact for transformation? 

 ...One of the ways the Common Grace movement has recently taken climate action is through our Knit for Climate Action initiative....Before October 21st, Common Grace, will have delivered a personally hand-knitted, climate scarf to every Australian Federal parliamentarian, all 227 of them.  The scarf is accompanied by policy asks aligned with the Paris Agreement ambitions, and the core steps being asked for by COP 26. 

... My hope and prayer is that the International Interfaith movement, will hear, will listen, and will be led by Indigenous peoples... And together we will protect and restore our Common Home, God’s Beautiful Earth, Country.

Read Brooke's full statement  pdf ILC Inspired Faith Action Towards COP26 Speech FINAL 27 September 2021 (126 KB)  

Inspired Faith Action and the Culture of UN COP 26  

Bishop Philip Huggins shares his reflections for the Interfaith Liaison Committee (ILC) Webinar held on Monday 27 September.  

INSPIRED FAITH ACTION CAN TRANSFORM CULTURES! 

1. Inspired faith action can ensure cultures are healthier in terms of inclusion; participation; respectful listening; transparency of information and process; warmth of relationships; a generous spirit open to learning from others; reconciled in our diversity and able to take delight in the gift of one another; grateful for the opportunity to be of service ,each new day dawning. 

Inspired faith action is understood to have helped accomplish the Paris Agreement. 

Inspired faith action now will help with the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement at UNCOP26! 

2. “Culture” is shaped by the way people behave with one another. It is relational behaviour over a period of time. 

Our advocacy, meditations and prayers are towards a COP culture in which people impacted by negotiations feel included and able to participate; an atmosphere which is neither cold, nor willfully adversarial and in which unreconciled matters from history are justly healed so that progress is shared equitably! An atmosphere too, that is understanding of the weariness felt by leaders, after months and months of crisis management through the pandemic.  And an atmosphere that is also understanding of the pressure on negotiators, diplomats and officials- the people who know just how dangerously fast the climate is changing and how great, therefore, is their  responsibility! 

3. The Paris Agreement, signed by some 196 countries, is a wonderful achievement but it is complex. 

That is why we want to inspire a quality of co- operation that transcends past limitations and finds a way, at COP26, to achieve what we know is crucial. 

4. Based on the best available information now, it would be quite miraculous if we could transcend adversarial divisiveness, vested interests, and the poor relationships between some nation states to achieve what is needed at COP26!  

We are advocating, meditating, and praying for the miraculous to happen in Glasgow!! 

5. Love transforms. Love will and can find a way. The love, that is. which inspires our faith. The love that unites us as one human family with one shared home which is our planet ?. 

As a disciple of Jesus my call is to love God and my neighbours. Love of God flows naturally into love for all God’s creation. 

I took a song to COP25 in Madrid. It juxtaposed images of the climate crisis, of war and of people displaced as refugees. The young students of our Melbourne Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School were the inspiration and artists .

Filmmaker Richard Keddie and I just helped their advocacy - the song in their hearts. 

Reworked recently for UN Peace Day 2021 and the opening of the UN General Assembly, it may be a helpful meditation as we seek to offer inspiring faith action towards a truly miraculous UNCOP 26! 

As our earth spins slowly in the vastness of this amazing universe, we pray for what the world needs now! 

(Watch: What The World Needs Now Choir mp4)

Bishop Philip Huggins

NCCA President 

COP26, Climate and the Pacific: the Cry of Earth, A Call to Action

On Friday 24 September, the Edmund Rice Centre also held a webinar. titled COP26, Climate and the Pacific: the Cry of Earth, A Call to Action

The Edmund Rice Centre and Pacific Calling Partnership have made the recording available to share.

If you were unable to make it to the webinar, you can access a recording here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqLXYdiKiG4 

Climate action prior to COP26

The United Nations climate conference (COP26) starting in just over 5 weeks- on 31 October.  Here's what you can do in the next 5 weeks:

• Send a letter to Australian leaders via our Stand with Tosy campaign. https://pcp.good.do/standwithtosyandthepacific/Email-to-Leaders/  Please share this campaign with your networks.
• Join the banner campaign led by the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change and put up a banner on a building which your organisation owns or has an association with.  Details of how to organise this are here. Make sure you send us a photo and look out for our Edmund Rice Centre banner coming soon!
• Sign the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition led by the Laudato Si' movement. You can do this as an individual or as an organisation. 

Edmund Rice Centre http://www.erc.org.au/