Ecumenical Patriarch issues encyclical on the environment
September 01, 2014
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor among the Eastern Orthodox churches, has issued an encyclical on the environment.
“In its prayerful memory, the Church always bears in mind the presence of its children, maintaining a vivid interest and concern for all that relates to and influences their lives,” Patriarch Bartholomew I said in his September 1 encyclical marking the beginning of the Orthodox liturgical year.
“This is why it does not remain unmoved or indifferent by the ongoing and daily destruction of the natural environment resulting from human greed and vain profit, which in turn implies an essential turning of the Lord’s face and results in consequential turbulence in nature and fracture in its crown, namely human existence, whose very survival is threatened,” he continued.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, he announced, “is organizing an environmental summit next June on the theme of ‘Theology, Ecology, and the Word: a conversation on environment, literature and the arts.’ The aim of this conference is to awaken the global conscience to the particular and specific importance of the ethical and spiritual dimension of the ecological crisis.”
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