Document
On February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol came into effect as international law. On that occasion, Pacific Church leaders led worship at the WCC Central Committee meeting including use of the following prayer (excerpts):
Dear Father in Heaven,
You have created Mother Earth in a wonderful and awesome way. You are preserving this beauty of creation every single day thus giving us the rich base on which we can enjoy our lives.
But your creation is not just a gift to us, you have asked us to use it accordingly to your will and to fulfil our given responsibility to protect your creation against all destructive forces.
We are co-workers of yours.
We tend to forget this responsibility in our striving for a comfortable life. As a result, our planet with all its beautiful creatures and vegetation is suffering. If we do not change our lifestyle soon we, the people of the Pacific, will suffer the most.
The rising sea-levels, the increasing number of cyclones, the droughts, the pollution in our air, the increased extreme weather conditions - we can already feel it.
We pray these words knowing that our sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ all throughout the Pacific region join us today in this prayer of concern about your creation and of thankfulness for the coming into life of the Kyoto Protocol.
Let us raise our voices together in the ecumenical family in favour for your creation! Let us make the world community hear our environmental concerns and our suffering! Let us support projects that call upon Australia and the USA who are major producers of climate-change-gases and who have not yet ratified the Kyoto Protocol to do so in the near future!
Let us be advocates for our Mother Earth!
Let us be advocates especially for our precious and endangered Pacific Islands! Let us be advocates for our Vanua - the seas and the land! Let us not only talk about change, let us DO your word in our day to day lives! Please give us strength and courage to be workers and fighters for your creation before it is too late!
