At the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Germany

Joy Kennedy: As a grandmother, I Say that Climate Change Put Children and Grandchildren at Risk

The Season of Creation is Full of Hope and Churches Should Work for Climate Justice

Before COP 27 in Egypt and COP 28 in Dubai, Many Promises Are Not Yet Achieved

Huguette Salameh, Karlsruhe – Germany

The world is today suffering from many ​​social, living, health and security crises... but the environmental and climate change issues are now ringing the alarm bell. Humanity is thus facing an unknown future. Therefore, it is necessary to listen to the neediest and most vulnerable groups, and accompany them amidst our global environmental crisis. Hence, the United Nations is working, through its various programs and international partnerships, for achieving climate justice towards a better future.

In this context, the Church has also an important role, especially in raising awareness and working for the protection of its children against climate change’s repercussions. Noting that the Church celebrates the “Season of Creation” and stress the importance of preserving our common home. From its end, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is working for climate justice, as the care for creation is one of its most important priorities. In fact, the Bible teaches the wholeness of creation and calls us to take care of the garden of Eden (Gen 2:15). The God of the Bible is a God of justice who protects, loves and cares for the most vulnerable among his creatures.

The WCC 11th General Assembly, convened many plenaries and activities related to the environmental and climate change issues. The Assembly is taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022, under the theme "Christ's love moves the world to reconciliation and unity."

Joy Kennedy, an environmental activist and moderator of the WCC working group on climate change, was one of the moderators who highlighted the importance of creation care and denounced the climate change dangers. In an exclusive interview with the MECC Communication and Public Relations Department, which is participating in the General Assembly in Karlsruhe, Kennedy emphasized that it is time to work together as Churches and organizations towards facing the climate crisis and preserving our land. 

In today's plenary during the General Assembly, you did not introduce yourself as an environmental activist, but as a grandmother worried about the future of her grandchildren. Please can you introduce more yourself and tell us how your interests in environmental issues started.

I come from Toronto, Canada and I’ve worked for the Churches for decades. I’m involved particularly with the issue of climate emergency, and specifically climate crisis. I’m a grandmother and I’m concerned for what is happening with this generation of young people and those who are not yet born. They will be inheriting an uninhabitable world. So my faith motivates me to be active and raise voices, as well as encourage people and help them understand that this is the time to make the huge required change.

I’m also moderator of the World Council of Churches working group on climate change which works very closely with the indigenous peoples’ reference group. We’ve drafted a joint report to this Assembly, knowing that the environmental issues are deep and related to all the world. It is time to understand our relationship with mother earth, God, creation and each other. It is time to work for change.

You have also participated in the launching of the “Season of Creation” international committee!

The “Season of Creation” is taking a while to get to the point today. But back to some years ago, we started in the climate change work to identify that the Churches need to have a way to promote the environmental issues. In addition to help people through activities understand the importance of engaging with their natural world… Once we are brought together and had some staff in WCC able to do some of the needed work, the season began to see light.

Pope Francis through Laudato Si’ invited all the Catholic community to come on board. The Orthodox community was already involved and been there. The “Season of Creation” is now celebrated around the world in many denominations. But also some people who are not within the Church are also involved.

The “Season of Creation” starts on the 1st of September and ends on the 4th of October with the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. It is now a Season properly... In Canada for example they’ve designed “Season of Creation” vestments… This is becoming real, and the activities organized by people in their congregations and communities are directly related to their relationship to the earth…

According to your assessments, what are the environmental threats today? How can we reduce its impacts and what are the solutions?

It’s clearly the climate change that we are experiencing quite rapidly now. It is the most existential threat. More people will die, be displaced, hungry and witness starvation, due to the impact of climate change. It is particularly caused by industrialized countries like mine Canada, in addition to addiction to fossil fuels and oil gas… We have to get off it, and if we don’t, there will be few places on the planet that are livable in very few years…

Many actions can be implemented as solutions. It can be definitely through the pressure from people and climate change working groups on governments, participating in COPs conferences, working with governments, insisting on change policies and programs to make the needed transitions and eliminating fossil fuels… but in a just way towards transitions to energy systems.

Finance is also necessary, for example for countries who have not been list responsible for the use of gases. We need to have huge climate investments, we need help to mitigate the problem, and to pay for the huge losses and damages. Some countries can’t economically respond; we may help each other but we need the financial support to move forward… Some vulnerable and poor countries have high death toll due to the impact of Covid-19 and climate change. We need the governments to pay their responsible allocations for example…

These are some of the practical actions. Noting that individuals’ actions matter also, but are not going to make the shift that needs to happen. We have many ways and opportunities to change the systems, and we need to have a new relationship with the planet around the world.

What are the preparations for the COP27 in Egypt and 28 in Dubai?

We have high hopes. I should say firstly that we work very much for interfaith response to the climate change in the United Nations. We’ve come to work with each other building trust and common platforms. Couples of things need to be finished for the COPs in Egypt and Dubai. We have not yet got the full Paris agreement implementation due to small pending issues that need to be finalized... The whole question of losses and damages have not been addressed properly. We are waiting for a lot of promises to be achieved.

We want people to understand that we have faith in the future and we can move forward, we are not hopeless.  There is much that can be accomplished, we have the tools and we know what are the problems. For the first time, the IPCC reports includes scientific and indigenous knowledge. People should know that there are places for them in discussions but their governments should act and speak loudly for climate justice.

How can we cooperate as Churches to have a better impact on the decisions makers?

First of all, we need to know what are our main messages that we want to share. For example, we insist at the WCC Assembly that we have a common voice, a common policy, a common set of priorities, then we raise it to all governments. Churches have a responsibility to act. It is time for Churches to insist on justice, we can’t have peace without it. We can have at these conferences reconciliation and unity in Christ’s love but it has to be absolutely engaged in reconciliation.

Unity can be understood when we recognize the problems of each other around the world. So we need to understand that we are all in this together, and we need to understand that the voices of the most vulnerable should to be listened… Our vocation is to be one Church universal, and we need to act together to achieve better results…

In conclusion, kennedy stressed the need to cling to hope. She said, “We have to look in our energies not fossil fuels energy… There are so much energies developing around the “Season of Creation”. It is a very hopeful and interactive season…” She also added, “We still witness fear and despair about the future. We must sorrow hope, a real hope. It can be done through various initiatives, such as the protest organized by youth here in Germany, calling for climate justice… Change and renewal start through working and moving forward…”.

Communication and Public Relations Department