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The spiritual and moral dimensions of climate change are best shown by how it affects the poorest and most vulnerable, says the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a message marking 1 September as a day of prayer for God's creation.
Although "people's awareness of the environmental crisis grows," the state of the planet is a matter of grave concern, Bartholomew says. The fact that "climate change has the potential to disrupt and destroy the entire ecosystem" is a "tragic situation," which results from human "choices and actions" and entails "a moral and spiritual problem".
"Especially disturbing is the fact that the poorest and most vulnerable members of the human race are being affected by environmental problems which they did not create," states the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Bartholomew stresses the need for an "environmental ethic, which must underline that the use of the world and the enjoyment of material goods must be Eucharistic, accompanied by doxology toward God". On the other hand, he says, "the abuse of the world [ ] is sinful both before the Creator and before humanity".
At its meeting last February, the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) urged the Council's members "to observe through prayers and action a special time for creation, its care and stewardship, starting on September 1st every year". The committee also urged them to "find specific ways to show our ecumenical solidarity with those most at risk," especially people and communities of the Pacific.
The late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios called on 1 September 1989 to observe Creation Day on the first day of September (the beginning of the liturgical year in the Orthodox Church).
WCC central committee's Minute on global warming and climate change (February 2008)
