The President of the National Council of Churches Australia shares prayers and meditations for success at the forthcoming Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Sunday, 31 Oct 2021 – Friday, 12 November 2021.
How can you Participate?
# 1. Noon each day: Silent Prayer and Meditation, perhaps with symbolic actions of our respective traditions- for example, ringing bells; lighting candles; standing silently together wherever we are.
# 2. 7pm: Deep Meditation and Prayer, according to our spiritual practice. Below is a prayer bidding from Lindsey Fielder Cook that can be used or for inspiration.
# 3. 5-7 November: A Pilgrimage Weekend of “Faiths for Climate Justice COP26”. This will be ahead of the crucial final week of COP negotiations. #COP26Pilgrim
Saturday 6th November: Pilgrimage – “Faiths for Climate Justice COP26 – International” – #COP26Pilgrim
As with all pilgrimages, the physical element is there to challenge the emotional and psychological. Reflection is the essence of all journeys. A mid-COP26 program will provide a platform for delegates, visitors and participants near and far to recharge spiritually and to re-centre on their own journey.
Ahead of the crucial final week of COP negotiations, this weekend of deep contemplation, meditation and prayer, will bring people and communities together across cities and countries on the 6th November.
Within a 24-hour window, across countries globally, for 1 hour leading up to a 12 noon silent prayer (local time) – we invite faith groups, and communities to come together in a symbolic act of unity for climate change. This can be reflected in an appropriate manner.
We envisage a virtual and in-person journey of reflection and connection for the good of this common cause.
Silence is Religiously Neutral
Our experience from interfaith involvement is that silent prayer and meditation allows us to each make our spiritual contribution.
PRAYER
We, voices from faith communities across the world, join in prayer for meaningful decisions at the climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
We pray for courage and compassion to transform those human activities destroying nature and altering the climate system on which our lives depend.
We pray our hearts to reject fear and embrace love, hope and transformation for a more healthy, safe, clean and sustainable world. We pray for strength that our lives be patterns and examples.
We pray for protection of climate activists and environmental defenders, who often risk their health, if not their lives, to break silence.
We pray for protection of climate scientists to work without intimidation and with sufficient funding and support.
We pray for protection of the poor and most vulnerable communities, those least responsible yet most affected by our insufficient climate action.
We pray that our leaders listen to grasp the urgency expressed, in the latest science, and to guide our economic systems to reject dependance on extraction, exploitation and accumulation through dispossession.
We pray for wisdom, courage and compassion in our climate negotiators, to find shared solutions together that honour needs of the poorest, while reflecting meaningful action from the richest and highest emitters.
We pray the developed countries will lead in greenhouse gas emissions and climate finance, as they promised in the Paris Agreement.
We pray leaders in all countries will do all they can to rapidly reduce extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and promote sustainable economic, social and political systems to stabilise global temperature rise at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
We pray that developed countries meet their promise of 100 Billion dollars a year to help developing countries implement climate action, money in the form of grants rather than loans.
We pray for sufficient finance to Loss and Damage, supporting those communities already profoundly affected by climate change no matter what we do.
We pray for the completion of the Paris Agreement Rulebook, including ambitious, effective and fair compliance in common time frames and transparency in reporting.
We pray for human rights and Indigenous People’s Rights to be included and protected in the Rulebook language, including protection of these rights in carbon trading schemes.
We pray for an inclusive conference, in which the voices of the least powerful are heard alongside the most powerful.
We pray, in this pandemic time, that access to vaccines is a human right for all, and that delegates attending the COP remain healthy and covid-free.
Note:
Shepparton Interfaith Network endorses this proposal for daily prayers and mediation during the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, commencing Sunday, 31 Oct 2021 – Friday, 12 November 2021. Your participation is welcome.
This document has a section on Christian prayer and reflection, and a Note by a Muslim. It has been jointly prepared by Bishop Philip Huggins of the National Council of Churches Australia and Mrs Sarwat Tasneem. You may read the full document in the download link.