URI Europe took part in the International Seminar on Science and Religion Cooperation for Environmental Care (ISSREC), inspired by Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato si No. 201:
“The majority of people living on our planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity. Dialogue among the various sciences is likewise needed, since each can tend to become enclosed in its own language, while specialization leads to a certain isolation and the absolutization of its own field of knowledge. This prevents us from confronting environmental problems effectively…The gravity of the ecological crisis demands that we all look to the common good, embarking on a path of dialogue which demands patience, self-discipline and generosity, always keeping in mind that “realities are greater than ideas.”
In late June 2016 an International Seminar on Science and Religion Cooperation for Environmental Care took place at the Torreciudad Shrine in Spain.
ISSREC was organized by the Environmental Ethics chair of University of Alcalá, the Tatiana Perez de Guzman el Bueno Foundation, and the Social Promotion of Culture Foundation. The event was aimed to foster dialogue between scientists, theologians, and religious leaders to promote closer cooperation between sciences and religious traditions for environmental conservation. The seminar was attended by a group of environmental scientists, theologians, and religious leaders of major spiritual traditions. Among them was Rev. Hierodeacon Petar Gramatikov, URI Europe Global Council Trustee and Vice-President of BRIDGES CC.
Pope Francis sent a message to participants, hoping that the seminar “served to promote scientific and interreligious dialogue for care of our common home and encourage joint efforts to promote consciousness with greater solidarity for the good of each and every human being.”
At the closing of the seminar, the participants planted an olive tree at the Shrine of Torreciudad, a natural symbol of the commitment of the various religious traditions and the scientific community for environmental conservation.
The Torreciudad declaration is available on the ISSREC website here: http://www.issrec.org/
List of participants:
Emilio Chuvieco, Department of Geology, Geography and the Environment, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
Jawad al-Khoei, UNESCO Chair for Interreligious Dialogue, University of Kufa, Kufa, Najaf Governorate, Iraq;
Sigurd Bergmann, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dept. of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Trondheim, Norway;
Anny Cazenave, Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, Toulouse, France;
Celia Deane-Drummond, University of Notre Dame, Department of Theology, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA;
Petar Gramatikov, Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
Nanditha Krishna, C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, Chennai, India;
Josep Maria Mallarach, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, Olot, Spain;
Hilary Marlow, The Faraday Institute for Science and religion, St Edmunds College, Cambridge, United Kingdom;
Yonatan Neril, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, Jerusalem, Israel;
Peter Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, USA;
Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Bishop Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City;
Josef Settele, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Halle, Germany;
Thomas Stocker, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;
Luc Torcal, General Procurator of the Cistercian Order, Rome, Italy;
Swamini Umananda, Hindu Chinmaya Mission France, Paris, France;
