Statement by Religious Leaders at the Summit on Environment

It has taken the religious community, as others, much time and reflection to start to comprehend the full scale and nature of this crisis and even to glimpse what it will require of us. We must pray ceaselessly for wisdom, courage, and creativity. Most importantly, we are people of faith and hope. These qualities are what we may most uniquely have to offer to this effort. We pledge to the children of the world and, in the words of the Iroquois, “to the seventh generation,” that we will take full measure of what this moment in history requires of us. In this challenge may lie the opportunity for people of faith to affirm and enact, at a scale such as never before, what it truly means to be religious. And so we have begun, believing there can be no turning back.

New York City, June 3, 1991

List of Signatories*

Bishop Vinton R. Anderson
President
World Council of Churches

Rabbi Marc D. Angel
President
Rabbinical Council of America

Reverend Joan Campbell
General-Secretary
National Council of Churches of Christ

The Reverend Herbert W. Chilstrom
Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Father Drew Christiansen,
S. J. Director
Office of International Justice and Peace
United States Catholic Conference

Ms. Beverly Davison
President
American Baptist Church

Reverend Dr. Milton B. Efthimiou
Director of Church and Society
Greek Orthodox Archdioceses of North and South America

Bishop William B. Friend
Chairman of the Committee for Science and Human Values
National Conference of Catholic Bishops