Faith-Based Engagement at COP 27

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This excerpt teprinted from UN Environment Programme Faith-based engagement site.

Faith Advocacy at the UNFCCC COP: From Glasgow to Sharm el-Sheikh

Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland Faiths demonstrated the potential to engage in robust climate-related dialogue, opening world’s eyes to the potential of faith leaders and their institutions to bridge the gap between faith and science resulting in The Appeal.

This year, ahead of COP27 the UN called for inclusive spaces for civil society:

“They underscored the essential role civil society plays in advancing climate action and urged Egypt to ensure safe and meaningful participation at the conference, including for independent groups”.

– UN News, Egypt urged to ensure civil society’s full participation in COP27 climate summit

In spite of the presented challenges, faiths have ensured that their voices are heard by organising 40+ side events, meditations, interventions, and actions to raise ambition and raise awareness for our common home.

Have a look at the faith-related events listed here. To add an event or update its details, please email azmaira.alibhai@un.org. Have you seen the latest Faith for Earth Newsletter?

COP 27, Laudato Si and Advent

A delegation of the Laudato Si’ Movement will be present in Sharm el Sheikh and supported by the efforts of its members and partners, will focus on NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) and mitigation. They will also present the film The Letter.

Advent begins on November 27 and this year we will celebrate it with the theme “Preparing for the Good News”, with a weekly reflection that will be published on the Hozana platform, a community to unite in prayer as a Church. Join Hozana to pray together this Advent.

 

Larry Rasmussen’s Climate Letters to his Grandchildren

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Renown theologian and Christian environmental ethicist Larry Rasmussen–a resident of Santa Fe and a member of the New Mexico El Paso-IPL advisory committee–has mentored a generation of Christians in eco-theology and green religion. “He rooted his courses and scholarship at Union Theological Seminary in the practice of environmental justice with communities and community leaders. He has published numerous books, including two landmark, award-winning volumes, Earth Community, Earth Ethics and Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key.  Read a longer bio

Rasmussen’s latest work, entitled The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren when Uncertainty’s a Sure Thing, is set for publication on November 29.

Here is a short description from the publisher’

Our children’s and grandchildren’s generation will face a different world, one affected by climate instability, mass uncertainty, and breathtaking extinction. In fact, the next generation will face the reality that human activity is changing the planet from one geological epoch to another.

From this vantage point—two generations across two geological epochs facing a fundamentally changing planet—Larry Rasmussen writes to his grandchildren. As a grandfather invested in a green earth and climate justice as well as a scholar of faith-based earth ethics, Rasmussen bridges this gap between generations to write to the future about climate change, global citizenship, democracy, and legacy. In topics ranging from “A Viable Way of Life” and “Democracy” to “Where We’ve Come From” and “Who We Are Now,” Rasmussen explores the large questions of justice, meaning, and faith, encouraging us to speak to and look to the future generation and their future world.

You can purchase the book at a handful of independent bookstores in New Mexico.

Bookworks in Albuquerque upon publication on Nov. 29 or Pre-order here

Page 1 Books in Albuquerque  Pre-Order Here

Collected Works in Santa Fe

COAS Books in Las Cruces Pre-order here

Literaty Book Shop in El Paso, TX  Pre-order here

You can also pre-order the book from national book sellers  Option 1   Option 2

Land Commissioner Adopts Cultural Properties Protection Rule

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NM State Land Office among the first in the nation to protect cultural resources on state trust lands
Rule to go live December 1, 2022

Recognizing that New Mexico’s state trust land has been occupied by people for millennia, with much of it ancestral to Native Tribes and Nations, New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard today announced the first ever rule of its kind designed to protect cultural resources on state trust lands has been formally published in the New Mexico Register, and will take effect on December 1, 2022. The rule requires lessees of state trust lands to conduct informational reviews and cultural resource surveys before engaging in new development on state trust land.
The purpose of the new Cultural Properties Protection Rule is to proactively identify archaeological sites and other cultural resources on state trust lands and protect them before they are damaged; resources that are often sacred and significant to Native people and contribute to the archeological knowledge of New Mexico.
The rule provides for important exceptions, including repairs and maintenance of existing structures such as fences and water tanks, that do not involve additional surface disturbance. In addition, the State Land Office has launched the Cultural Survey Support Program in conjunction with the rule to help agricultural lessees and others with the survey process and to provide additional information and support regarding how to comply with the rule.