European Christian Environmental Network salutes initiatives of many young people across the continent under the heading of ‘Fridays for Future’ also known as School Strikes for Climate.
Concern around the impact of climate change and climate justice are in heart of churches’ engagement in care for creation.
Some churches and church organisations in different parts of Europe have already demonstrated their solidarity with ‘Fridays for Future.’ As a European Network we support them.
We invite church ministries and church leaders to visibly listen to the demands of Fridays for Future, and encourage them to be expressed in a peaceful manner and without actions of violence or intimidation.
We call upon church ministries and church leaders to support the following appeal:
‘With protests in many places across Europe, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren and students have for weeks been sending out a powerful signal for a more consistent commitment to fight the climate crisis, and for a sustainable future. We respect the courage of the protesters, and support the concerns of our younger generation.
This urgent call to change our ways expressed in a peaceful way is justified in the light of the acceleration of climate change. For many years, some churches have been working for climate justice, but we confess that we too had been doing too little, and without the full support of our church leaders. We therefore take seriously the call of young people to change the ways of society and of our churches. The values at the heart of our Christian faith is clear on the integrity of creation and of solidarity with our neighbours, especially in the countries of the global South.
We encourage church initiatives and church members to strengthen our joint commitment to climate justice; in our personal lives as well as in our church communities.
We invite churches to give space in their buildings for regular ‘prayers for the future’ or ‘prayers for the climate’ to compliment the actions of Fridays for the Future and perhaps in some cases partner with them.
We invite church members, parishes, as well as church communities to support the concerns of “Fridays for Future” to dialogue with the participants and to include them in the intercessions in our services.’
If you, your church, your area of work in the church, your church organisation or initiative supports this appeal and is in solidarity with the concerns of “Fridays for Future”, then send an E-Mail with the following data to ecen
cec-kek [dot] be:
- Name of the church, area of work of the organisation or the initiative
- Contact data for further questions
- Link to your Website
Translations to other languages: Italian, French, Romanian, Hungarian