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Green Patriarch on YouTube

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Clips from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s various environmental symposia are now on YouTube. This first video is from the patriarch’s address in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1997 which, the accompanying text says, “was the first time any religious leader had ever called harming the environment a sin.” The second video is from former Vice President Al Gore’s welcome in Washington during the same 1997 visit. See more videos here.

WWF: ‘Green Patriarch’ backs strong Copenhagen agreement

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From the WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund):

Bartholomew I
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, nicknamed the ‘Green Patriarch’ for his longtime support of environmental issues, is calling on political leaders participating in climate change talks this week in Bangkok to agree on strong and fair measures to mitigate climate change in advance of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December. Bartholomew is among a growing number of religious leaders from various denominations weaving environmental awareness into their teachings and activities. Last year, more than 400 mosques in Malaysia held sermons focused on turtle conservation issues to discuss the need for better wildlife protection in that country … Demetres Karavellas, CEO of WWF-Greece welcomed the Patriarch’s statement, saying: “The call for strong political commitment against climate change by the leading Primate of the Orthodox Church is a very clear message. It is time for world leaders to listen to this ecumenical message and achieve a binding climate deal at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.”

Green Patriarch backs UN climate change framework

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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I weighs in on the Bangkok Climate Change conference where delegates were greeted with “stern pep talks”:

Istanbul, Turkey, 9/28/2009

In view of the international negotiations on climate change commencing in Bangkok, Thailand, and only two months before the crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, we urge the international community to undertake courageous commitments for the prevention of the most severe consequences of global warming.

The accomplishment of a good agreement within the framework of the international negotiations in Copenhagen does not solely constitute a moral imperative for the conservation of God’s creation. It is also a route for economic and social sustainability. Taking action against climate change should not be understood as a financial burden, but as an important opportunity for a healthier planet, to the benefit of all humanity and particularly of those states whose economic development is lagging behind.

We pray for the achievement of the best possible international agreement during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, so that the industrialised countries undertake generous commitments for a total reduction of the polluting greenhouse gas emissions by 40% until 2020, compared to the 1990 levels, as well as for the provision of important financial support to the developing countries.

The urgency of the situation and the progress of science and technology pave the way for a low-carbon global economy, the development of renewable energy sources and the aversion of further deforestation. We all need to collaborate, in order to make sure that our children will be able to enjoy the goods of the earth, which we bequeath to them. We need to secure justice and love in all aspects of economic activity; profit and more specifically short-term profit making can not and should not constitute the sole incentive of our deeds, specifically when it undermines our common and God-given natural heritage.

Source: Order of St. Andrew the Apostle

Green Patriarch’s U.S. schedule released

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The Ecumenical Patriarchate has launched a new Web site for the visit of Bartholomew I to the United States from Oct. 20 to Nov. 6. The detailed schedule of the patriarch’s visit is heavy on meetings with U.S., Greek and United Nations officials.

The trip begins on Oct. 20, with the arrival of His All Holiness in New Orleans for the start of the environmental symposium, which runs through Oct. 25.

A patriarchal “audience” and meeting with SCOBA hierarchs is scheduled for Oct. 27 at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in New York.

On Oct. 29-30, the patriarch visits the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Co., where he will meet Muhtar Kent, president and chief executive officer.

On Nov. 3-4, Patriarch Bartholomew will offer lectures in Washington at John Podesta’s liberal-leaning Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution.

Podesta is also arranging a meeting between President Barack Obama and the patriarch, but no exact time has been announced. Other politicians on the schedule include Vice Presdent Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Watch the new, 42-minute video The Green Patriarch.

blurb:

Like Al Gore, who named him the “Green Patriarch,” the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church is a prominent leader in the environmental movement. Since 1997, he has been bringing principal scientists, environmentalists, religious leaders from all faiths, and policy makers from all over the world together to work on the ecological crisis.

This film looks at the ecological consequences of the historical split between science and religion, how we came to see ourselves as separate from nature, and how our consumer based economy found its moral justification in a Judeo-Christian view that humans have dominion over the planet’s resources. At the same time it also explores how Bartholomew’s activism is inspired by the Orthodox position that we are part of nature, and that God’s intention for humans is to be stewards, or caretakers, of all creation.

In a world of unprecedented consumption of the earth’s natural resources, Patriarch Bartholomew shows by example how saving the planet is finally a moral issue, not solely a technological one. And as this film follows him on his trips to the most ecologically threatened areas of the planet, it also illustrates why these views are so controversial.