Faith communities mobilize in Madrid on eve of COP25

2 December 2019

LWF/OCS

"Cambio Climático y Esperanza" (‘Climate Change and Hope') reads the text, as Lutheran World Federation delegate Sebastian Ignacio Muñoz Oyarzo from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile holds a sheet of paper on which key discussion points have been summarized at an interfaith dialogue in Madrid, 1 December. All photos: LWF/Albin Hillert

Interfaith service and dialogue set tone for fortnight ahead

(LWI) – Gathering at the Iglesia de Jesús in central Madrid, representatives of various religious traditions met on 1 December to pray and dialogue together in view of an intense agenda ahead, as the United Nations climate meeting (COP25) runs from 2-13 December.

Christian, Muslim, Jew and Bahá’í – many are the people of faith who share a common interest in caring for Creation, as political leaders from around the world now gather for the 25th session of the COP to deliberate and negotiate a way forward through what is becoming an evermore alarming situation of global climate emergency.

Under the theme of ‘Interfaith Dialogue – Hope, Action and Prayer’ some 100 participants took on the challenge of exploring as people of faith ‘where we are,’ ‘where we want to be’, and ‘how we can get there’ in view of a broad spectrum of climate-related challenges and opportunities, following the process of Talanoa dialogue and taking stock of similar dialogues ranging back to COP23.