The scale of what is being lost is difficult to comprehend. According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, up to one million plant and animal species face extinction, most of it driven by human activity. For people of faith, that figure is not merely statistical, but deeply spiritual. It points to a broken relationship with creation and with God, creator of all. It demands a moral and spiritual conversion.

The 2026 International Day for Biological Diversity theme, "Acting locally for global impact," runs through the entire session that is coordinated by Dr Louk Andrianos, WCC consultant on Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice. Rev. Dr Jessica Hetherington (United Church of Canada), convener of the Working Group on Biodiversity and Creation Justice of the Commission, will open with prayer and theological grounding. Co-convener Kevin Maina (Church of Kenya) will then take stock of what interfaith coalitions are doing, and what more needs to happen, in international biodiversity advocacy processes. 

The heart of the webinar is a series of five-minute reflections from speakers rooted in different traditions: an Eastern Orthodox theologian, a scholar offering a Sámi Indigenous perspective from the Church of Norway, a Buddhist representative from Soka Gakkai International, an Islamic scholar with the Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya, and a Hindu environmental activist from the FutureFaith initiative. Each will address, from within their own tradition, how faith can be a living force for biodiversity protection. 

The webinar will end with a spiritual message and a closing prayer by Prof. Dr Mathew Koshy Punnackadu, from the Church of South India.

The webinar is part of a wider effort within the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action to engage with the Faiths for Biodiversity coalition and ecumenical partners, among them the Season of Creation ecumenical network, ACT Alliance, Laudato Si Movement, Lutheran World Federation, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the European Christian Environmental Network.

The event is in English and open to all. Please share this invitation with your congregation, your networks, and anyone for whom the future of creation is a matter of faith.

Register via Zoom here