Ecumenical Patriarch emphasizes importance of ecology, childhood
May 02, 2017
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy, reaffirmed the Orthodox churches’ commitment to ecumenism in a recent address to the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
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The prelate emphasized that “a sin against creation is a sin against God. As for any sin, we must likewise repent for the sin committed against creation.”
“The Church cannot be solely interested in the salvation of the soul, but is deeply concerned with the transformation of God’s entire creation,” he continued. “This is why our Churches need to have constant vigilance, information and education in order to understand clearly the relationship between today’s ecological crisis and our human passions of greed, materialism, self-centeredness, and rapacity.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch also emphasized the sacredness of childhood, particularly “in light of the global refugee crisis that especially affects the rights of children; in light of the plague of child mortality, hunger and child labor, child abuse and psychological violence, as well as the dangers of altering children’s souls through their uncontrolled exposure to the influence of contemporary electronic means of communication and their subjection to consumerism.”
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