Document
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological degradation are existential threats, raising spiritual, moral, and justice issues that demand our response in faith.
The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Ecumenical Indigenous Peoples Network Reference Group and the Working Group on Climate Change at their inaugural joint meeting in Yu-Shan Indigenous Theological College and Seminary, Hualien, Taiwan June 26, 2019, affirmed the essential role of Indigenous wisdom and spirituality in addressing the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity and the threat to human life.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, that prevented their planned meetings in Fiji, with a heightened awareness they have continued to meet online and to draft this report together, and to seek opportunities to collaborate within the WCC, and with ecumenical and interfaith partners in appropriate international spaces.
They have worked closely together in the Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace in North America and the Arctic; at COP25 in Madrid and COP26 in Glasgow; and at the virtual 2021 Parliament of the World’s Religions, as well as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; and in preparing for the Indigenous Pre-assembly and the WCC Assembly in 2022. The report acknowledges and affirms that Indigenous perspectives are crucial not only for addressing the burgeoning climate emergency but also for navigating the way forward to a hopeful post-COVID, post-growth and post-fossil fuel future.
