Nicola Coddington, executive director of New York Interfaith Power and Light led the conversation by specifically addressing the issue of climate change with a change of heart. As science alone has not solved the environmental problems we are facing, we must now look toward faith and the human-Earth relationship.

A DVD on the work of Thomas Berry was presented, where it was suggested that we are moving into the "Ecozoic Period." That although the first hundreds of millions of years of life on Earth were developed without human involvement or interference, it is now impossible for humans to be separate and not take an active role in the regeneration of Earth's ecosystems and health. What happens to everything on the Earth in turn happens to us as humans.

Climate change was presented in the discussion as a moral and ethical challenge, which is at the heart of what religious or spiritual organizations address. Coddington reminds us that the Golden Rule, which is present in some form in every religion, extends to the responsibility we must have in our relationship with the environment and the planet.

Photo by Danielle KlockKarryn Olson-Ramanujan reads from Valuing Spirituality and Development

If you plug the words in, it makes a mighty impact: "Do unto the Earth as you would have the Earth do unto you." Suddenly we can see that our actions are karmic, and how these issues that have been examined scientifically for the past 25 years or so can be addressed from a moral and spiritual perspective.

Other ways that spirituality plays a role in facing our environmental challenges is through gratitude for what we have and the celebration thereof. Through development of our appreciation and celebration we can move beyond fear, guilt, and denial, and move toward hope and transformation.

Because the scale of climate change is so urgent, we cannot wait for slow change, and must transform and make an impact with intention.

Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, co-founder of the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute introduced us to the Baha'i faith. She says that if we are able to understand and fully recognize that we are all connected, that we can quickly shift our consciousness and subsequently transform the physical world.

Valuing Spirituality and Development is a Baha'i publication that asks, "Can we have spiritual indicators of development?"  Ramanujan read briefly from the book and identified the five Foundational Principles of the Baha'i faith as equity and justice, unity in diversity, equality of sexes, trustworthiness and moral leadership and independent investigation of truth.

The connection between spirituality and sustainability was then opened up as a discussion with the audience. The ideas of personal responsibility and reconnection with our bodies were addressed, among other topics of interest, with the underlying currents looping back to the work of Thomas Berry and others. 

TAGGED WITH: climate change, environmentalism, global warmin, morality, permaculture, spirituality