The Churches realize the necessity for the ecological purification

Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 16:47
On the occasion of the ecological Day of God the Creator, on the 13th of September in the Center of Culture and Art of the National University of “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” there was an environmental roundtable "Love Mother Earth", which aimed to unite the efforts of Churches to maintain our land clean, to increase the overall culture of people and educate the cautious attitude towards nature.

At the beginning, Fr. Ihor Shaban, the Head of the Commission of the UGCC for Promoting the Christian Unity, published the results of a pilot sociological survey, which was conducted by the Church in collaboration with the non-governmental organization, called “European Institute of Social Communication”, in three regional centers of Ukraine: Kiev, Donetsk and Odessa. This survey aimed to identify the attitude of people towards the environmental issues, as well as, to find ways of how to overcome them. Moreover, researchers have tried to figure out what place, in the minds of residents of modern Ukrainian city, is attributed to the understanding of who is the one to be responsible for the preservation of the environment in their residential area and what is the role of religious organizations in it. A more detailed analysis of the survey will be presented soon.

After that, the participants of the round table were addressed by the representatives from the Churches of Ukraine. That was the way of how His Beatitude Liubomyr (Husar) stressed the significant role of Church in making each person realize the responsibility for the Earth created by God the Creator. Because only through cherishing and developing our internal body-soul ecology, we can have a more responsible attitude towards the nature that surrounds us. Therefore, what is first of all needed to preserve the world that was created by God, is the Spiritual Renewal of a man.

The Archpriest Serhiy Yushchyk, who is the Candidate of Theology, the first rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary UOC/MP, attracted the attention of people to the teachings of the Church Fathers of the millennium, who did not hesitate to discuss the environmental issues, particularly indicating to nature as a gift from God. ”Man has a responsibility to take a gentle care of the world created by God and take care of its proper development,” – indicated Fr. Sergiy.

Ms. Elena Ohanesyan, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, elucidated the historical features of the development of the environmental thinking in the Armenian history, and its connection with the ancient Kievan Rus. There was a multifaceted work with youth in the direction of the ecology.

Pastor Ralph Khaska (German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine) recounted to all the members of the roundtable on specific environmental steps that his Church is taking in Germany.

Having listened to the main opinions of the Church representatives, the youth, that attended the roundtable, started the lively debate. Particularly, the organization of the debate was joined by the representatives of the Kiev Society of Ukrainian Catholics Students “Obnova” and the Center for Academic Pastoral of the UGCC Archeparchy of Kyiv. A number of questions were coming from the hall. People were interested in hearing the specific responces concerning such issues as, what the Churches in Ukraine do in order to spread environmental thinking among the population, as well as, what important steps could be done together with all the Christian Denominations in this direction.

At the end of the roundtable meeting, the activists of the non-governmental organizations, academics, journalists and employees of the social institutions had the possibility to continue the discussion in a more informal environment.

 

 

Commission of the UGCC for Promoting the Christian Unity

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