Faith Leaders Offer Closing Blessing for COP26
As COP26 draws to a close, Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, Founder, Shomrei Adamah, Karyn Bigelow, Co-executive director, Creation Justice Ministries, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, Chief Executive, Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Founder/Senior Rabbi, IKAR, Cassandra Carmichael, Executive Director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, Imam Saffet A. Catovic, Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, Islamic Society of North America, Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, Advocacy Director, Office of Public Witness, Presbyterian Church (USA), Rabbi Fred Dobb, Chair, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, Clarence Edwards, Legislative Director, Sustainable Energy & Environment, Friends Committee on National Legislation, The Rev. Nathan Empsall, Executive Director, Faithful America, Dr Carmody Grey, Assistant Professor of Catholic Theology, Durham University, Susan Gunn, Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Dr. Maria Reis Habito, International Program Director, Museum of World Religions, The Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith, The Rev. Susan Hendershot, President, Interfaith Power & Light, The Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, President/CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Executive Vice President, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, David Krantz, President, Aytzim: Ecological Judaism, Avery Davis Lamb, Co-executive director, Creation Justice Ministries, Michelle Dunne, OFS, Executive Director, Franciscan Action Network, Jakir Manela, CEO, Hazon, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Organizing, POWER Interfaith PA, Rabbi Lee S Paskind, Consultant, Social Justice Commission of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, The Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Senior Director, Witnessing in Society, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder & CEO, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph. D., Executive Director, The Shalom Center, Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, Executive Director, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Rabbi Burt Visotzky, Director, Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Jewish Theological Seminary and Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary, National Council of Churches, join together with Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, to offer this variation on Kiddush Levanah, a Jewish prayer for renewal traditionally recited in the light of the waxing moon:
Blessing for Conclusion of COP26
We praise You, our God, Provider and Protector of all the world, who with Your words created the vastness of the heavens, and with Your breath all the life within it. You have given us times and seasons, rain, sun and soil. May we live so as to love and value these gifts, so that countless generations and myriad species may continue to wonder at them. Inspire the nations of the world, their leaders and their peoples, to not falter at our appointed task. May the promises made at this gathering be not only kept but surpassed, until the promise of a sustainable and healthy future reaches the farthest corners of the earth, our common home.
At this moment of opportunity and truth, may we fulfill Your desire for justice and speak truth to power, our Creator, Worker of truth whose work is truth.
Just as the light of the moon is renewed and grows brighter, so may we move past the darkness of division and despair into the light of hope, courage, generosity, solidarity and good will. Guide us to repair our imperfections speedily and soon, before the garden we have inherited becomes a desert we leave to our children. May it be Your will, our God and God of our past, present and future, that we end oppression and move forward united in a spirit of humility, mutual respect, and responsibility to each other and all of life. Blessed are You, Fashioner of life, who endlessly opens the path toward renewal.
Blessing for Conclusion of COP26
We praise You, our God, Provider and Protector of all the world, who with Your words created the vastness of the heavens, and with Your breath all the life within it. You have given us times and seasons, rain, sun and soil. May we live so as to love and value these gifts, so that countless generations and myriad species may continue to wonder at them. Inspire the nations of the world, their leaders and their peoples, to not falter at our appointed task. May the promises made at this gathering be not only kept but surpassed, until the promise of a sustainable and healthy future reaches the farthest corners of the earth, our common home.
At this moment of opportunity and truth, may we fulfill Your desire for justice and speak truth to power, our Creator, Worker of truth whose work is truth.
Just as the light of the moon is renewed and grows brighter, so may we move past the darkness of division and despair into the light of hope, courage, generosity, solidarity and good will. Guide us to repair our imperfections speedily and soon, before the garden we have inherited becomes a desert we leave to our children. May it be Your will, our God and God of our past, present and future, that we end oppression and move forward united in a spirit of humility, mutual respect, and responsibility to each other and all of life. Blessed are You, Fashioner of life, who endlessly opens the path toward renewal.