JCM Conference 2022 Stewards of the Earth - Religious Responses to Climate Change and its Consequences

Source: International Conference for Dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims

• 21 - 27 February 2022
• ​Haus Wasserburg, Vallendar

We live in a time when the destructive effects on nature are becoming ever more severe: polluted water, melting glaciers, oceans polluted with plastics, coral reefs bleached by over-acidic seas. Agricultural land is degrading gradually due to non-sustainable use, unhealthy eating habits, exploitative mining for resources, deforestation, desertification and erosion. Worldwide carbon emissions continue to increase, leading to an accumulation of greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere and effects on the climate.

Numerous scientists and researchers warn that we could be the last generation able to reverse the trend. If we miss our opportunity, we will reach a point of no return. As people of faith, we believe that humans have been given the task to be stewards of the earth.

The 49th Jewish-Christian-Muslim conference addressed the question how individuals of the three faiths are inspired by their religious traditions to advocate for climate justice and the protection of creation and thus allow for the sustainable use of the riches and resources of the Earth.

Rabbi Tanya spoke at the JCM Conference 2022, Stewards of the Earth - Religious Responses to Climate Change and its Consequences on 22 February 2022 ​ The 49th Jewish-Christian-Muslim conference addresses the question how individuals of the three faiths are inspired by their religious traditions to advocate for climate justice and the protection of creation and thus allow for the sustainable use of the riches and resources of the Earth.

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JCM Conference 2021

How does the time of isolation change our ideas about religious community? The pandemic, regardless of whether one counts it as the most relevant crisis of the time or criticises the measures taken to fight it as exaggerated, is having an impact on our everyday life everywhere. In the last months the isolation has led to a changed sense of time, to new types of social contacts and especially for people of faith, to a rethinking in areas of worship, spiritual welfare and coping with contingency. The pandemic is now testing the foundation of every Abrahamic religion, the community. Times of crisis have always reinforced search for meaning. Will the problem of isolation lead in the long term to a reversal of individualisation and will the sense of community regain a higher status in society?

How do our faith institutions respond to feelings of loneliness and alienation? Can faith and religiosity in psychological terms relieve the burden at all, and if so, how? Streaming events by religious communities have drawn greater attendance than local in-person worship. But does it touch people as deeply as an in-person real-life services that allows personal encounter and involvement and do these satisfy religious needs or are they just another means against boredom next to Youtube, Netflix and Co.?

Due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference took place online with participants from across Europe, Israel and Palestine, Tanzania and Indonesia. Together we explored how this crisis challenged and will continue to challenge life and works of our religious communities and how we can sustain ourselves and our dialogue. What will we need to leave behind and what can we learn from and with one another?

For those who missed the conference, you may wish to watch the lectures from the faith groups available on our YouTube channel