At the beginning of September, the North German Mission held a theological consultation in Kpalimé/Togo on the topic of the climate crisis and climate justice.
At the end, the delegates adopted the following communiqué:
Communiqué from the Norddeutsche Mission’s Theological Commission 2024
From 3 September 2024 to 8 September 2024 in Kpalimé, Togo, a Theological Consultation of the Norddeutsche Mission (NM) with the theme “Climate crisis as a matter of justice” took place.
The participants were members of the Theological Commission of the six member churches of the NM, lecturers from universities, NGOs, church bodies or from the government. The consultation welcomed guests and representatives of the youth also. Visits to a muslim congretation and a traditional ruler egarding the topic have been made. For the EEPT, these visits were a prime example of opening up to interreligious and intercultural discussions.
The participants affirmed the manifold dimensions of the question of justice regarding the climate crisis, particularly its social, economically, religious, racist, colonial and environmental care aspects.
Those who came together underlined the interconnectivity between humans and human beings and its co-creatures, animals and plants, water and air on our mother earth. The participants welcomed a panentheistic world-view: God is not nature, but God can be found by looking at nature, which is what Paul writes in Romans 1.
The richness of knowledge of indigenous groups regarding the preservation of the environment has to be taken into account as well as scientific findings.
To do justice to the environment, but also to do justice to those who suffer from the climate crisis most, although they are not the main causers of the crisis (Comprising about 17 percent of the world's population, Africa contributes just 4 percent of global carbon emissions), implies two mandates. One is to protect the environment and strictly work for keeping the global temperature under or to the maximum of 1.5 C through measures that the NM churches can steer. The second is to do everything what is possible as NM that the “Fund for responding to loss and damage” - which the COP1 and CMA2 at its twenty-eighth and fifth sessions, operationalized –
receives the amount of money requested from the countries of the so called global North.
( 1 Conference of the Parties [The UNFCCC- United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change - entered into force on 21 March 1994. Today, it has near-universal membership. The 198 countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention. 2 Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement)
The participants of the Theological Consultation recommend that each NM member church:
- establishes a training program for children and youth in order to create awareness for creation care (Children’s church, Eco-Clubs at schools). The material to be developed should be sponsored by the NM with a corporate identity logo for all member churches.
- combats youth unemployment (particularly in Ghana and Togo) through training and financing of start-ups, in order to avoid that youth takes up jobs that serve to destroy the environment, instead of protecting it. (Looking at illegal mining activities in Ghana, for instance.)
- promote a spiritual approach to God's creation, for example by celebrating an ecumenical time for creation.
- raises its (prophetic) voice in view of climate offences
- avoids non-sustainable action in its own structures (logistics, bigger events, conferences, travelling, respecting the seven R`s). [1. Rethink · 2. Refuse · 3. Reduce · 4. Reuse · 5. Repair · 6. Regift · 7. Recycle.]
- is aware that loving one another demands action in terms of reparation when injustice was done.
- acknowledges that the missionaries of the 19th century – including the NM missionaries – contributed to environmental damages. Instead of respecting the protective rules and rituals in favour of nature they, ignorant of the knowledge of the people at place, were condemning these.
- revives a spiritual approach when engaging with nature.
- contributes to a paradigm shift regarding the preaching of prosperity. Instead of calling for more consumerism, encouraging people to find the fullness of live in contentment. That means living of cooperation instead of competition, sharing instead of greed, empathy instead of egoism. The Global North should reflect on a preaching and teaching of an ethics of the sufficient.
- engages and connects with other players and religious bodies for joint action in the surrounding society in favour of the environment.
- shares best practices in terms of combat against the climate crisis with all good-willing people
- advocates for clean water.
- uses social media for promoting creation care
- includes in their climate protection declarations and actions the demand for climate justice
- regards climate justice as a cross cutting issue
The participants ask the North German Mission itself to support the efforts of the member churches with its work and its projects and programmes.
The participants of the Theological Consultation thank the EEPT for hosting this consultation and for providing the opportunity to look at the issue of climate justice from a Togolese perspective. They urge the member churches of the North German Mission and the North German Mission itself to significantly increase their commitment to climate protection and climate justice once again. Because "together we believe (...) the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. Human beings, created in God's own image, are called to serve as faithful and responsible caretakers of God's precious unique creation, of which we are at the same time an inherent part and inextricably dependent on the health of the whole natural world." (WCC Assembly Karlsruhe 2022)
