Active Faith Earth Charter Seminar held at Taplow

SGI-UK PAST ACTIVITIES

On September 25, a diverse group of representatives of faith-based organizations in the UK came together to explore the Earth Charter. The workshop took place in the beautiful mid 19th century mansion of Taplow Court set high above the Thames near Maidenhead, the head office of Soka Gakkai International in the United Kingdom. The seminar was hosted by Earth Charter UK in cooperation with the national commission of UNESCO and the Development Research Center of the University of London.

The 25 participants were relatively new to the Earth Charter, so the main aims of the event were to introduce the Earth Charter as a tool for engagement with sustainability issues within faith and interfaith communities and inspire the participating organizations to become more actively engaged in the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. The aims and mechanisms of the Decade were introduced by the chair of the Earth Charter Council of Trustees in the UK, Dr. Doug Bourn who currently chairs the DESD round table at UNESCO-UK

In his opening remarks, Dr. Bourn set the tone for the workshop by qualifying it as a journey of sharing and learning: "Some of the key issues of our time have been outlined in the Earth Charter and the Decade on Sustainable Development launched by the United Nations in 2005. One of the aims of this seminar will be to enquire how these two can be linked together."

After giving the participants the chance to express their expectations for the day, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Founder of Earth Charter UK gave a personal introduction to the current state of affairs at Earth Charter UK. Then followed a presentation of ECI Program Coordinator Michael Slaby who gave a background analysis of the spiritual and religious contributions to the consultation process that led to the formulation of the Earth Charter. Slaby also outlined the programmatic areas of the Earth Charter Initiative and especially highlighted the aims and objectives of the new Program on Religion and Sustainability:

  • To deepen and expand the global dialogue that led to the formulation of the Earth Charter
  • To bring the religions of the world into greater collaboration with each other and with leading secular institutions in addressing the global challenges of our time
  • To produce very high-quality education materials that translate the most up-to-date knowledge on global issues into a language of faith and spirituality
  • To use the Earth Charter website as a platform for sharing experiences, success-stories and best practices of engaging with sustainability, environmental protection, social justice and peace from a perspective of faith and spirituality

The last two hours were spent in small groups where people discussed how to move forward on the issues of education, endorsements of the Earth Charter and the empowerment of faith communities to become active agents of change. The discussions generated a whole range of activities and project ideas, such as promoting the use of the Earth Charter in teacher training and professional development courses; launching a "bottom-up" strategy of ensuring endorsements of the Earth Charter from the grass-roots to the governmental level; engaging young people with the Earth Charter; and providing faith communities with inspiring case studies on how they could start their own Earth Charter projects. These projects could include the creation of local interfaith action groups that could focus on a specific environmental or social issue of major concern in their local community. Many participants also felt an urgent need to develop a specific website on Earth Charter related activities in the UK.

To follow-up on these ideas, several participants agreed to form a working group of faith communities that could become an active component of Earth Charter UK alongside the existing thematic groups of business, youth, and education. The participants also expressed their interest in institutionalizing the Earth Charter meetings of faith communities at Taplow Court on a yearly basis.