Meet The REEP Patrons
The REEP patrons send their personal messages for the new website and tell us why they believe it is important to study RE and the Environment.
The Rt. Revd. and Rt. Hon. Richard Chartres, Bishop of London
Contempt
for the Creation is a sin and a betrayal of the responsibility entrusted
to human beings both to 'till' the Earth and to 'keep it' (Genesis 2.15).
The Judaeo Christian tradition offers a subtle balance between recognising
the earth as a divine gift to be respected while acknowledging human responsibility
to develop and use this gift by transforming raw materials into new realities.
The REEP website is an entry point into a balanced ecological consciousness
which has a lively spiritual dimension and is also alive to the needs and
rights of the world's poor. I hope that you will be a frequent visitor.
The Rt. Revd. and Rt. Hon. Richard Chartres,
Bishop of London
Gregorios, Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain
His All-Holiness the Oecumenical Patriarch, Vartholomaeos I, who presides in love as the first hierarch of the worldwide Orthodox Church, reminds us in his writings on the Environment that the Oecumenical Patriarchate was one of the first in the Christian world to recognise the deep spiritual meaning and the relationship that exists between ecological problems and God our Creator; and how it is the duty of the Church to contribute to the best of its ability to solving these problems. He stresses that:
'The man who divorces himself from God and proclaims that he is the centre of all things threatens all creation, including man himself, with destruction. The greed of man and the unadulterated consumerism of comtemporary society are developing into a nightmare threat to our planet. It is necessary for us to return to the liturgical and ascetic ethos of our Orthodox Church and in this we Orthodox are called upon to give the example and herald the respect of Man for God's creation.'
With this in mind, I am delighted to welcome this new initiative of REEP to promote its ideals by means of a website, thereby making them more widely available. May Almighty God, Who created all in His wisdom, richly bless this undertaking.
Gregorios
Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain
Seyyid Hossein Nasr
The environmental crisis that looms so large on the horizon, and is already being felt in the daily lives of so many people, threatens the whole fabric of life on earth and requires the immediate attention of all those who have eyes to see and who look toward the future of humanity.
The crisis is not, however, only the result of economic and technical mismanagement, the applications of modern technology or human greed. To be sure, all of these factors are very important, but at a deeper level what is involved is the loss in modern society of the religious view of nature and of man's God-ordained role in the world.
What is of the utmost importance is the rediscovery of the sense of the sacred quality of nature and of man's ethical duties and responsibilities in dealing with the natural world. That is why the relation between religion and the natural environment lies at the very heart of the debates now being carried out concerning the environmental crisis. At the end, it is only the inner dimension of religion that would be able to provide a solution. The REEP website is therefore of great significance for those who would understand the impasse within which modern man has trapped himself as a result of forgetting who he is and what function he is meant to perform within the world of nature.
Jonathon Porritt
As Kermit the Frog said, "It's not easy being green!" And it's even harder being spiritually green.
For
wholly understandable reasons, mainstream environmental organisations have
adopted both the instrumentalist ethic and the strictly empirical methodologies
that prevail in our industrial age.
But can we really explore the challenge presented by today's world without
exploring its spiritual roots and the need for sound spiritual foundations
as we slowly develop a more just and sustainable future?
The REEP website should be a good place to start bridging the gap between RE and the Environment.