Social Justice Quotes 2006

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for December 31, 2006

The future of our planet is in our hands, in each of our hands.  We appeal to you to be open to seeing the relationship between God, human beings and other creatures. Our own personal involvement and conversion are vital. We need to be free of a way of life that values consumption, convenience, wealth, status and economic growth above all else.
No 60 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for December 24, 2006

We turn our attention to the urgency of securing our fresh water supply. It is imperative that water use be controlled. The full cooperation of every resident is urgent for the conservation of water. It is urgent too, that everyone realise that water is life, that water is God’s gift to everyone and to other living beings as well, and therefore think of ways that water can be conserved.
No. 59 Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for December 17, 2006

Care of the land also includes the handling of solid and liquid waste.... Recycling can be a great help... Every household, commercial enterprise and industry will have to cooperate to make recycling truly effective.
No. 57 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for December 10, 2006

Care of the land will also involve the strictest monitoring of air and water pollution from toxic wastes resulting from rampant industrialisation.
No. 56 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for December 3, 2006

Natural resources are not only limited, but also some are non-renewable. Hence the need to respect the integrity and cycles of nature ... We cannot use with impunity the different categories of being, that is, animals, plants and natural elements. We are to consider the nature of each being and its mutual connection in an ordered system.
No. 41 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for November 26, 2006

God has entrusted the whole of His creation to the human family to be cared for ...  Every man, woman and child in the world has a strict right to find in the world all that they need for their spiritual and material development. No one individual and no one nation have the right to possess more than they need when others lack the basic necessities of life.
No. 40 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for November 19, 2006

Our landfills can pose a threat to the environment, especially when cans, aluminium foil, plastics and other non-biodegradable materials are dumped there... Non-biodegradable materials such as tin, aluminium and other metals take 100 to 500 years to degenerate.   Seepage from these landfills may reach the water table and contaminate the ground water supply.
No. 25 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for November 12, 2006

One of our greatest treasures is the Caribbean Sea, which possesses a diversity of life that is increasing daily as new species are being discovered. The Caribbean Sea is an excellent place of interdependence of live organisms living in harmony with nature.   Yet our Caribbean Sea is fast becoming a locus for the unpleasant solid and liquid waste so characteristic of urban and rural life.
No. 16 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for November 5, 2006

Traditionally, we have regarded other forms of nature as having value only insofar as they are valuable for us humans. However, an ecological worldview sees all forms of life as having their own worth and not just a usefulness for humans.... The earth is seen as having its own wondrous and absolute value independent of us; our duty  is to live in harmony with it. –  No. 35 Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for October 29, 2006

The UN Conference in 1992 stressed the need to pursue development without compromising the ability of future generations to develop. It pledged to be mindful of development’s stress on the planet’s beauty as well as resources, and to respect all other species as well as our own in future generations. 
No. 6 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for October 22, 2006

Care of the land remains one of the most important elements in environmental conservation. Particular attention has to be paid to the agricultural sector .… Encouragement and concrete incentives should be offered to farmers to produce as much food as possible, preferably organically grown, to feed our people.
No. 55 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for October 15, 2006

As we partake of the bread and the Wine in the Eucharist our complacency should be challenged by the recognition that there is an inequitable distribution of food and drink.   For many there is insufficiency, for others there is abundance.   This should lead us to want to do something about this situation.
No. 47Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for October 8, 2006

There is a real relationship between our public worship and the call to justice… An example of this is the Church’s insistence that clean water be used for the washing in Baptism. This insistence should help us to recognise that many people in the world do not have access to potable water and should spur us on to want to do something about it.
No. 47 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for October 1, 2006

“The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it” (Ps 24:1).  
We are in the world not as owners but as tenants and stewards.   The specifically Christian dimension of stewardship must include this responsibility for the integrity of creation, for our environment.
No. 2 Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for September 24, 2006

Human beings are called by God to appreciate the worth of other creatures and to observe the laws that God has put in nature itself.   As responsible members of God’s creation, we recognise that creation belongs not to us but to God, and that God has entrusted to us the care and the use of creation in accordance with His plan.
No 43 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for September 17, 2006

All religious traditions encourage simplicity of life. In the Christian tradition, this wisdom derives from the Lord’s own profound saying, ‘where your treasure is, there will your heart be too’ (Mt 6:21). The desire for affluence, for more and more possessions, for almost anything new, can begin to dominate us.
No. 61 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility, Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005

for September 10, 2006

We urge our parishes to undertake practical programmes of action... These programmes of action could take a variety of forms, e.g. clearing polluted sites, creating green spaces on the church compound, campaigning to change lifestyles.
No. 45 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility,
Pastoral Letter of Antilles Episcopal Conference, 2005

for September 3, 2006

It is important to see in creation the image of the Creator and a first manifestation of God’s love. Since creation reflects and reveals the Creator, it was given to us for our admiration and contemplation.   Our response to God’s gift of creation ought to be one of gratitude to God and to creation and a determination to care for and preserve the beauty of creation.
No. 42 Caring for the Earth – Our Responsibility -
Pastoral Letter of Antilles EpiscopalConference, 2005