Care for Our Common Home

MCC Board member Kitsy Winthrop introduces multi-faith panelists at Oct 25 “Caring for Our Common Home” event at Bowdoin College. L to R: Nasser Rohani, Steve Hastings, Tim Fuller, Kyriacos Markides, Sally Chappell and event coordinator Anne D. Burt.

The Maine Council of Churches and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment co-sponsored “Caring for Our Common Home,” a multi-faith forum held on Sunday, October 25 at Bowdoin College designed to engage people of all faiths in considering Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on climate change, “Laudato Si.”  Panelists from seven different traditions (Native American, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Greek Orthodox, Protestant and Baha’i) spoke about how their faith communities were responding to climate change and to “Laudato Si,” and prepared statements from the Hindu and Muslim communities were also read.  The audience included more than 75 attendees from many different faith traditions who spent time after the presentations in dialogue with one another and with the presenters about why faith communities have an important role in responding to the challenges that climate change presents.