Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future

On Participating in the Design of a Sustainable World

As if People, the Earth and the Spirit Really Mattered
submitted by
Earthcare Interfaith Network
to
Global Tomorrow Coalition
for the National Public Hearings on Our Common Future
at the
Globescope Pacific Assembly
November 1-2, 1989

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Global concerns: developing a holistic approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The nature of holistic approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Holistic approach and healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Learning a holistic approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Value as foundations of development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Economic values and constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Re-examining economic values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The role of the faith communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Spiritual responsibility for the earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Basis for common ground among faiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Interfaith dialogue and common values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Interfaith dialogue or religious wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Uniting justice, peace and environmental concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Integrating faith and practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Within our faith community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Our words and actions in the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Becoming part of a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Developing networking skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Developing communication skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Attention to process: listening to others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Proceeding deliberately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Sensitivity to other cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

U.N. Earth Stewardship Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Environmental Sabbath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Non-government participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future
On Participating in the Design of a Sustainable World
As if People, the Earth and the Spirit Really Mattered

Overview
The global crisis calls for a holistic approach, involving consideration of all the dimensions of
sustainability -- environmental, economic, cultural, social, political, community, personal and
spiritual. We need a deeper understanding of what a holistic approach means.

The values guiding development need to reflect a sustainable consensus of the highest values of our
relationships with each other and with the earth. We need to look to the spirit, and to our
common spiritual heritage, as we search for that consensus.

Our individual actions need to embody these values, and we need to join those actions with others
-- locally, regionally, nationally and globally, integrating local and global concerns.

As we work with others, we need a process that embodies an ethic of inclusion, and that listens
attentively and respectfully to dissent.

We need to support the United Nations in moderating the course of sustainable development, and
to work towards the establishment of a U.N. Earth Stewardship Council.

Rationale: The nature of the recommendations presented here are broad, and the opportunities
for their implementation are many. While there is value in developing an approach that
coordinates the implementation of the recommendations, in many respects it is at least as
important that they are implemented in many different contexts and forms by individuals within
their own faith communities. Further, the synergy that can emerge from networking is most
evident when it is based on bringing together many independent sources of energy and activity.

There are growing indications of an awakening within the faith communities of a concern with our
relationship with nature. For example, in 1986, the Declarations of Assisi, from Buddhists,
Christians, Jews, Moslems, and Sikhs emerged from a conference convened by the World Wildlife
Fund. The Environmental Sabbath has been established through the United Nations Environment
Programme as a time for faith communities to observe a day of rest for the earth. And there are
many individuals who have long harbored within themselves a deep sense of the importance of the
spiritual dimension of our relationship with the earth.

The emergence of a "movement" based on a recognition of that importance is providing -- for many
of these individuals -- empowering opportunities to express that inner sense beyond a few close
friends, and to discover many other who share their perspective on the natural world.

This renewed sense of legitimacy for the spiritual dimension of our relationship with the earth is
being juxtaposed with the sharply increasing focus on the need to address environment and
development issues. This juxtaposition means that a sensitivity that had generally been considered
otherworldly is being seen by more and more people as containing within it vital keys to coming to
terms with the very concrete question of how we can develop the basis for sustainable life of earth.

Earthcare Interfaith Network, Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future, 1989.11 1

 Until recently, the planet was a large world in which human activities and their effects
were neatly compartmentalized within nations, within sectors (energy, agriculture, trade)
and within broad areas of concern (environmental, economic, social). These
compartments have begun to dissolve. This applies particularly to the various global
crises that have seized public concern, particularly over the past decade. These are not
separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development crisis, an energy crisis. They are
all one.
Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment p. 4

Global concerns: developing a holistic approach: As the boundaries between sectors and
compartments are dissolving, the realization is growing that life on earth needs to be looked at as an
interlocking system. Just as we can not address issues of development without issues of environment, so
when we look at the sustainability of development, we need to consider the sustainability of the social and
political environment accompanying the development. For social and political environments to be
sustainable, they must be supportive of sustainable individual, family, and community environments. At
the heart of sustaining individuals, families, and communities is sustaining of the spiritual element of our
lives.

The nature of holistic approach: While there is much talk of the need for holistic approaches, much
less tends to be said by way of description of the nature and characteristics of a holistic approach. A
holistic approach goes beyond a recognition of the connectedness of the various elements of our world: it
involves an appreciation of process as well as of structure, of right-brained and of left-brained approaches
to the world, of body as well as of mind. And, as the whole knows no boundaries, a holistic approach
opens a doorway to acknowledgement of the role of the spirit -- in human behavior, in nature, and in our
relationship with nature.

Holistic approach and healing: Often not noted is that "holistic" stems from the same root as "heal", and
a holistic approach is one that goes beyond analysis and embodies a commitment to make whole, to heal.
In the context of sustainable development, a holistic approach must embody a commitment to a process
of healing the earth and of healing our selves.

Learning a holistic approach: There is a need for a concerted effort to come to terms with the meaning
and scope of a holistic approach, in theory and in practice, and to seek systematic ways to introduce
principles of holistic methodology into the ways we think and act, for example through curricula at all
levels of our educational system.

Value as foundations of development: Just as recognition of spirit has been missing in much
public dialogue on the affairs of the world, so has been an examination of the role of values in an
economy. We need to recognize that the economy, and economic development, are systems for the
definition and transmission of values. Yet the nature of the values that are transmitted by development
are rarely questioned, nor is much consideration given to specific ways that the mechanisms of the
economy, and the structure of laws and regulations that govern these mechanisms serve as a powerful
vehicle for the transmission of values.

Economic values and constraints: The basic values that guide our economic systems reflect conditions
before there was any substantial awareness -- other than in the writings of Malthus -- of the nature of
constraints to economic growth, whether from depletion of the earth's resources or from the effects of the
accumulation of toxics and waste in our ecosystem. And, with the exception of Marxist economic theory,
economic analysis has paid scant attention to the social and political ramifications of the economy and of
economic development.

Earthcare Interfaith Network, Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future, 1989.11 2

Re-examining economic values: We need a fundamental re-examination of the values that are
represented by the workings of our economic system, and we need to subject to rigorous scrutiny the
question of the extent to which those values, and our own individual behavior, are compatible with a
sustainable economy. We need that scrutiny to extend to an examination of the social and political
implications of our economic systems.

The role of the faith communities: Over the span of human history on earth, the faith
communities have played an instrumental role in the development of culture, knowledge, the social order,
and of the economy. While it is commonly recognized how religious leadership has frequently resulted in
widespread abuses "in the name of God", at times that realization has turned us away from an
acknowledgement of the positive contribution of spiritual leadings and of religions to the quality of life on
earth.

Spiritual responsibility for the earth: As the evidence has been accumulating on the extent to which
human activity is jeopardizing life on earth, as we know it, there has been emerging within faith
communities a growing recognition of our spiritual responsibility for the earth.

Basis for common ground among faiths: This recognition has been accompanied by a growing
recognition of a basis for common ground among religions, and to an emerging dialogue among those of
different faiths. It has also led to an exploration of ways in which less widely known spiritual teachings --
for example from Native American traditions, or from the Tao -- speak to us as we seek to rediscover
what our own faith teaches us of our relationship with the natural world.

Interfaith dialogue and common values: This opening to a dialogue between faiths on a shared concern
for developing a spiritual ethic for our relationship with the natural and material world represents an
unprecedented opportunity to bring together the richest traditions of value in human history. The
opportunity to engage in a process of inquiry and exploration of the common ground among faiths
concerning our relationship to the earth naturally opens a door to exploring a broader basis of common
ground. This process could provide a remarkable foundation from which it may be possible to move
gently towards discerning a consensus as to a set of the highest shared values of our relationship to the
earth and to each other.

Interfaith dialogue or religious wars: Given the history of wars that have been -- and still are being --
fought between representatives of different faiths, any process of dialogue among faiths will at times not
be an easy one. Yet, we need to undertake it, not only to engage into a deeper search for sustainable
values, but also to answer the very real and direct challenge to sustainable development posed by the
tensions between those of different faiths -- tensions perhaps most evident right now in the Middle East.
For, no matter how sound a strategy of development may be in other respects, it can swiftly be undone by
war.

Uniting justice, peace and environmental concerns: Just as there has been a growing dialogue between
different faiths on our relationship with the earth, so, within the World Council of Churches is a
movement that offers another vital challenge for the faith communities that is intimately related to the
issues involved in environment and development. For this movement -- known as Justice Peace and the
Integrity of Creation -- involves an exploration of Biblical teachings, as well as those from other faiths, of
the relationships between issues of justice, peace and the environment, and a commitment to address
those concerns.

Earthcare Interfaith Network, Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future, 1989.11 3

Integrating faith and practice: The search for religious values compatible with sustainable life on
earth will have little meaning without a parallel commitment to have those values guide our words and
actions into tangible steps to address the issues.

Within our faith community: We need to examine our own individual and corporate lifestyles within
our faith community, and to become clear as to the effect of our lives on the earth and the earth's
resources. We need to share our concerns with others within our faith communities, and work to have
our faith community unite in support of these concerns.

Our words and actions in the world: To the extent that we are able, we need to become actively
involved in secular planning processes -- locally regionally, nationally and globally -- that address
concerns for our common future. Whether a recycling or tree planting program in our neighborhood, city
or county; economic development plans for our region; or state or federal pollution legislation, we have
the opportunity to support appropriate action, as well as to seek for ways of establishing links in practice
and in consciousness with the global context, and with its spiritual dimension.

Becoming part of a network: As we engage in an active process to work with others to move
towards a sustainable common future, we will find many with whom we can discover a deeply held set of
common values, and with whom we can join in enthusiastic endeavors. We may become increasingly
aware of being part of a network of people who share our concerns.

Developing networking skills: Addressing the seemingly immense tasks of being part of a fundamental
transformation in the way the world works, we need to continue to find ways of being more effective in
our words and actions. As we become part of a network of committed people, opportunities will continue
to present themselves for us to deepen our understanding and practice of ways we work with others --
ways of sharing skills, information, resources, and support for each other.

Developing communication skills: Hand in hand with networking skills we need to strengthen our skills
of communication, learning ways to speak and write more clearly, ways to share our messages -- and those
of others -- more deeply and more widely. We need to be sensitive to the words we use, and to the
meanings they evoke in others. We can move from the spoken word to print, and as way opens, we can
explore the power and effectiveness of computers and electronic communications networks that can open
doorways to near instantaneous communications around the planet.

Attention to process: listening to others: While we can expect to encounter many friends and
supporters on our journeys, as we become involved in some of the more challenging arenas, we will surely
encounter those whose opinions and interests appear to run counter to those we hold. Even, and
especially, when convinced of the rightness of our ideas, we need to listen attentively to those who differ
from us, to hear the truth in what they say. We need to be careful not to possess any idea too firmly,
knowing that another may draw us closer to truth.

Proceeding deliberately: While it is easy to sense an urgency to implement efforts to provide a basis for
sustainable development, we must be wary not to be rushed into precipitate actions. While at times it
may take significantly longer to reach a point where decisions can be made that are agreeable to all, and
while it may be tempting to ride roughshod over objections, there is a very special quality and power to
actions that grow out of a true consensus, and that embody respect for all the parties who are involved.

Sensitivity to other cultures: Throughout the process of dialogue on environment and development, we
are likely to encounter people from different cultures -- whether they are from distant countries, or
represent different cultures and values from within our own society. In order for the dialogue to move
towards resolution of differences in perspective, we need to maintain a sensitivity to cultures different
from our own, and to be slow to pass judgment.

Earthcare Interfaith Network, Foundations for a Sustainable Common Future, 1989.11 4

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development: The U.N. International
Conference scheduled for 1992 represents a unique opportunity to channel the concern and energy for
sustainable development into an agenda and process for setting global policy, and for building
mechanisms for addressing global environmental concerns.

U.N. Earth Stewardship Council: Laying the groundwork for the establishment of an Earth Stewardship
Council, to become one of the six major components of the United Nations, has been advocated by some
as one of the goals for the 1992 U.N. Conference. The Earth Stewardship Council would fill a gap that is
being created by the completion of the tasks of the U.N. Trusteeship Council, which had the
responsibility for supporting the passage to independence of territories that were in a trusteeship status at
the time the U.N. was established. The creation of an Earth Stewardship Council would be an
acknowledgment that the task of caring for the survival of the earth should be a primary responsibility of
the United Nations.

Environmental Sabbath: An Environmental Sabbath, observed during the first weekend in June, has
been established through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a time to observe a
day of rest for the earth, and to examine the teachings of one's own and other faiths on our relationship
with the earth. Organizing interfaith events around national and local observations of the Environmental
Sabbath can be a powerful means of involving faith communities in that issue, as well as of drawing
specific attention to environment and development, and the 1992 United Nations Conference.

Non-government participation: In what is unusual language for a United Nations Conference, the
Governing Council of UNEP is calling for systematic efforts to involve non-government organizations in
the planning and preparation for the 1992 Conference. This call is an acknowledgement of the vital
grassroots leadership role in environmental movements everywhere, and represents a wonderful
opportunity for grassroots participation in setting a global agenda and in developing global policies.

Conclusion: The faith communities are faced with an opportunity to play a vital role in speaking to a
fundamental aspect of the challenge of sustainable development -- the spiritual dimension of our
relationship with the earth -- that to date has received little attention. Exploration of this spiritual
dimension opens a doorway to an interfaith dialogue, a dialogue whose importance goes beyond issues of
environment and development to a search for a common ground among all faiths, a common ground
based on a shared commitment to the relationship that each of us has with nature and with an earth
which has provided spiritual and material sustenance since the dawn of human history.

Earthcare Interfaith Network, c/o Information Habitat: Where Information Lives - http://habitat.igc.org