The EcoRes Forum Call for Action

To Religious Leaders and Communities

We call upon religious leaders and communities:

• To use their highly influential positions responsibly, with great awareness of their
  potential to reach those within their faiths around the world;
• To cultivate the “caretaker” principle recognized by religious leaders as a spiritual imperative;
• To look beyond doctrinal, philosophical and political differences in seeking to address these global threats, reaching across religious and social boundaries to build coalitions based on shared values, such as seen in the historically momentous “Joint Declaration on the Environment” by Pope John Paul II and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople;
• To teach these principles to their congregations, cultivating culturally sensitive, caring communities of open-minded individuals, aware of their place in and responsibility for the planet and to society at large;
• To incorporate the principle of the oneness of humanity and its implications in their teachings; and
• To join interfaith and ecumenical groups in joint educational, development, mediation and action-oriented initiatives on climate justice issues.