Interfaith Ecological Restoration
The United Religions Initiative (URI) is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace, justice and healing by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences through doing work together for the good of their communities and the world. In more than 100 countries, thousands of local groups – Cooperation Circles – are practicing URI’s Preamble, Purpose and Principles (fondly called, “the PPPs”). In the Preamble it states,
“We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.”
Embracing interfaith cooperation is a lot like working to protect biodiversity. When the focus is only on helping one species thrive, other parts of the ecosystem get stressed, depleted, or become overly aggressive. True flourishing arrives when an ecosystem finds reciprocity with all species communicating their needs, offering their gifts and working interdependently.
But there’s more. Just as soil, birds and trees work together to create a healthy eco-system, gender equality, job security and clean water work together to create healthy communities. Indigenous wisdom and the teachings of world religions urge us to recognize that working to restore Earth and taking good care of one another are always related. Very much like dynamic and responsive ecosystems, Cooperation Circles across the URI network aim to bring creativity and resilience to conflicts, disruptions and even disasters.
Planting thousands of trees along Malawi’s Lilongwe River; modeling regenerative lifestyles at an eco-village outside Amman, Jordan; mentoring youth in indigenous Earth-keeping in Uganda; improving soil health, food security and establishing income for women with a grove of mango trees in Kolkata, India; teaching beekeeping at a Syrian refugee camp; and teaching eco-literacy to children in Cambodia are only a few of the hundreds of ways Cooperation Circles are inviting people around the world to restore degraded ecosystems and protect biodiversity while also strengthening local economies and deepening local peace-building practices.
The KM Global Biodiversity Framework suggests this too; and perhaps it is this integrated approach, detailed throughout its targets, that offers stronger encouragement to further the good work already underway. Before it was a written document, the GBF was being modeled in thousands of small (and larger) acts of cooperative, restorative, celebrative, responsive care for trees, water, land, seeds and other creatures with whom our own lives are inextricably woven. Coming from appreciation, curiosity and cooperation, the global grassroots efforts of these interfaith actors will continue to embrace the wisdom of Indigenous lifeways and local ecology while also exchanging ancient and emerging knowledge to create a stronger and more resilient root system. Enduring cooperation is not always easy but when our actions are informed by the wisdom of nature and the resilience of thriving ecosystems, our beliefs and cultures can be celebrated and protected as sacred, integrated, and whole.
Written by Lauren Van Ham
An interfaith minister, Lauren love for Nature's teachings infuse her focus in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Lauren currently serves as Earth Restoration Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative. She is a spiritual director and guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.
