EKD launches resource for churches to engage on sustainable development
Front cover of the discussion paper.
06 December 2018
The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has recently made available a discussion paper affirming the significance of Agenda 2030 and placing specific demands upon those in positions of responsibility within politics, civil society and churches.
Prepared by EKD‘s Advisory Commission on Sustainable Development, the document also brings together practical examples of what churches and communities can do in order to promote the Agenda 2030, the United Nations’set of 17 sustainable development goals to be reached globally by the year 2030.
“As the Protestant Church in Germany, we are distinctly aware of the special responsibility which we bear for such a radical change of values and culture”, said Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the EKD Council. “We wish to become more sustainable and more credible in our own ecclesial practices. If we succeed in so doing, we can then become instruments of sustainable development and agents of radical change”.
Entitled “Lent to us is the Star on which we live –The Agenda 2030: A Challenge to the Churches”, the document affirms that the Agenda 2030 is also a mandate for every individual to participate in the transformation process afresh every morning.
“The churches have a unique and special opportunity in this ‘kairos’moment of transformation. Few other protagonists in society have the resources to be ‘admonishers’and ‘mediators’, as well as ‘drivers’”, reads the discussion paper.
“Churches and agencies, congregations and their members must face the challenges of sustainable development. Only in this way can they themselves be strong drivers, credible mediators and authentic admonishers. It is precisely at the juncture of these three functions that the particular opportunity and responsibility of the Church lies.”
With several references to the historic engagement of the World Council of Churches in the issue of care for creation and sustainability, the discussion paper concludes with the affirmation that the more the church can achieve in the Agenda 2030, “the more credible will be our admonitions and challenges directed at others. Strength, promises and visions of faith are important for large-scale, long-term and honest transformation processes”, reads the text.
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