World Council of Churches: Climate Change is a Spiritual Crisis

The world’s largest ecumenical Christian body will deliver a statement characterizing climate change as not only a technological, economic or ecological crisis, but also as a spiritual calamity.

The statement, developed in part by the World Council of Churches’ climate change program coordinator Dr. David G. Hallman, is slated for delivery tomorrow as the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change begins its meeting in Montreal, Canada.

"We would like to light a candle," the statement begins.

The candle will evoke “the pain and disaster already suffered in various regions due to climate change." It will signal that "time is running out" for negotiating equitable and sustainable targets for post-2012 when the present protocol expires, the statement continues.

Climate change and creation care has been at the forefront of advocacy efforts of a variety of Christian groups. In recent years, conservatives joined aboard the discussion, calling for a greater awareness of the impact of global warming and seeking in the current direction of fossil fuel use.

The World Council of Churches, which is better known for its liberal constituents and beliefs, has been working on the issue since 1990, when it was identified by the scientific community as one of the most threatening social and ecological issues of our times.

The Council’s recent statement was circulated at an inter-faith ceremony, which was attended by nearly 1,000 people in St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal on Dec. 4.

The statement will be presented to the representatives of over 180 countries who will be in Montreal. The representatives hope to begin a process of negotiation for a climate policy framework that will be needed once the Kyoto Protocol – an international plan to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses by five percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012 – expires.