On Thursday 13th Oct something happened which would have been unthinkable 60-80 years ago in my youth: A service of worship in a Roman Catholic cathedral, led by a (female) Uniting Church minister, the call to worship being a Muslim call to prayer, an acknowledgement of Country by Uncle Paul Newman (NOT Joanne Woodward’s husband), a passage of scripture chanted by a rabbi, and a Buddhist prayer followed by five minutes of meditation.
The occasion was the “Faiths for Climate Justice” multi-faith service at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta. It’s part of the campaign by Greenfaith International network to have the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt next month make real progress on climate justice. There was of course an emphasis on the wonder of the universe and care for the world and its people.
This service was in support of an open letter to Prime Minister Albanese signed by over 100 First Nations and Pacific and Australian faith leaders, and published in the Australian Financial Review (scroll right down for to see an image of the letter in the AFR; there wasan accompanying story on another page). It asked the Australian government to:
- Stop new coal and gas projects and not subsidise existing ones
- Respect First Nations’ rights to protect Country
- Help “extractive industry” workers into sustainable jobs
- Participate actively in creating and endorsing a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
The Call to Prayer was chanted in Arabic by Ahmet Ozrurk, and of course I didn’t understand what it said but the cadence of the chant with trueness of pitch and purity of tone and the knowledge that this was in reverence to Allah all combined to bring a sense of prayer.
Rabbi George Mordecai’s chanting of Lamentations 1:8-16 was preceded by his reading it in English, so without knowing any Hebrew we were able to appreciate the emotion in his very musical chant. He’s a cantor at a synagogue in Woollahra.
Zen Bhuddist teacher Mari Rhydwen read the Bhuddist prayer. Then she engaged us in five minutes of mostly silent meditation, occasionally reminding us to “breathe in gratitude” and after that to breathe out care and forgiveness to others.
A prayer was read by Auburn Uniting Church minister Rev Mosese Taufa, we heard from Maria from Kiribati about the catastrophe of rising oceans, Rabbi George returned with guitar and had us singing Psalm 89:3 in Hebrew!!! Ahmet Ozrurk read a Muslim prayer in English, sixteen students from three Catholic colleges led us in responsive prayers written by a Quaker, Lindsey Fielder Cook. We sang “All things bright and beautiful” in the modern Australian context version. Finally we were asked to gather for photographs to be available to the media.
For me this experience reinforced my certainty that God’s will is for humanity, in all its variations, to be one and to care for the planet and for each other.
Bruce Hanna
Extra reporting direct from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change:
What a huge team effort yesterday! Organising groups in 13 different locations across Australia and the Pacific designed beautiful Faiths 4 Climate Justice Multi-faith Services which were attended by many hundreds of people of faith. Some supporters showed their deep spiritual commitment to the cause by praying and meditating all through the night before the services in the morning.
As well as being meaningful in their own right, the Services created local interest for a wide range of media outlets leading to much more extensive media coverage than the open letter would have received on its own. Local radio stations took a keen interest. Our passionate and articulate spokespersons shared their wisdom in dozens of radio interviews, many of them on the ABC (Perth report here).
Special thanks go to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia who were the driving force behind fund-raising for the paid ad in the AFR and collectively donated a third of the cost.
The summary of media coverage below is not comprehensive, (and there was) more coverage in religious media (in the days afterward):
- The Australian
- The Australian Financial Review
- The Australian Associated Press ran the story which then got picked up in the Canberra Times, West Australian, Newcastle Herald, Bendigo Advertiser, Illawarra Mercury and a large number of regional newspapers
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- The Guardian’s live blog
- The Beagle on the south coast of NSW
- Mirage News
- ABC Radio in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Cairns, Wollongong, Sydney and more
- ABC Radio National on AM
- TV crews from SBS went to both the Sydney and Perth services
- Ten sent a crew to the Sydney service
- Seven News sent a crew in Cairns
- 6PR radio in Perth, syndicated to three other stations elsewhere, including 2GB in Sydney
- The National Indigenous Radio Service
- The Catholic Leader
- Hope 103.2 FM
- 2SM radio
- Radio Adelaide
- Channel 31 TV in Melbourne
- A Bunbury WA local paper
- CathNews
- Anglican Focus in Brisbane
- Sight Magazine (Christian online)
Of course, the letter has been sent to Prime Minister Albanese and members of his Cabinet. We pray now that they allow themselves to be moved and motivated by the letter to reconsider the Government’s position on a few of their policy positions. We continue to pray for all those who are paying a high price for Australia’s moral failure around protecting the earth’s climate.
The open letter to our Prime Minister had the active support of these young people in Kiribati last Thursday. It’s sad to reflect on what these beautiful, spirited youth, whose identity is so bound to their islands, stand to lose because of the recklessness of (mostly) wealthy nations.
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