NCCP Statement for the 2024 Season of Creation
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines celebrates this year’s Season of Creation starting from 1 September 2024 through a series of local and international ecumenical celebrations, reflections, and communion. These celebrations are united by the theme, “To hope and act with Creation” and the symbol “The firstfruits of hope”, inspired by Romans 8: 19 – 25.
This Season moves us to reflect even more on our Sangnilikha. The whole of Creation is groaning and this is evident in the ecological state of the Philippines. The times we live in show pain and suffering through the different forms of un-peace, such as a prolonged state of disaster situation brought about by the scorching El Niño-induced drought earlier this year, followed by a series of destructive typhoons and rains. We experienced the driest spell across agricultural lands, damaging crops and causing water shortages. Shortly after, flash floods gushede from the mountains of Rizal to the streets and rivers of Metro Manila. Millions of Filipinos felt the groaning of Creation in their hunger, poverty, and loss. Many of us ask, “are these disasters the new normal?”
Adding fuel to the fire, the state of un-peace in our Creation is also present in the environmentally destructive programs and projects being pushed by the national government. Reclamation projects threaten our coastlines in Manila Bay and Bacolod City, among other coastal communities. Our mountains are being sold to foreign-owned extractive industries such as in large-scale mining and quarrying. Coal-fired power plants, a major source of carbon emissions that is driving the climate crisis, remain to be our leading source of electricity.
There are still so much injustices present that leave the people and our motherland violated and devastated. We are witnessing, here and abroad, bombs being dropped in rural communities, traumatizing children or leaving them as orphans, destroying rural barangays and cities, burning homes and displacing families as powers that be continue their theater of war.
We must reflect on the words of Paul, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now” (Rom 8:22), invoking that these pains are rooted in sinfulness. The signs of the times reveal the roots of this sinfulness as mammoth corporate greed and the worship of profit. The state of God’s Creation today, including that of humankind, is proof that ecological and climate crisis is strongly linked with the social crisis of vulnerability, poverty, violence that are especially prevalent in poor and marginalized communities.
As we uphold our Vision of the fullness of life, achieved through peace based on justice; the National Council of Churches in the Philippines believes that every pursuit for climate and ecological justice is a pursuit for just peace. Therefore, to hope and act with Creation means, above all, the accompaniment of churches with the most vulnerable and marginalized people and communities and with the whole created Earth. In our Christian hopefulness, we become resolute that no crisis is insurmountable.
Thus, as a Council of Churches, we demand that the government review the development strategies that put importance to the interests of foreign investments and big businesses over the proper utilization and sustainability of the environment and implement genuine climate action. We reiterate our call to end all land reclamation projects in Manila Bay, Bacolod City, and other coastal communities. We also call the attention of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to assess the environmental impacts of operational coal-fired power plants in the country and to limit their operations and entry in our land.
We also appeal to our churches and ecumenical partners to accompany and to assist affected communities and help tide them over disastrous times, by extending our prayers, services, and sanctuaries to them. We also impel our faith network to support and promote calls for climate mitigation by participating campaigns to reduce fossil fuel use, as a substantial amount of greenhouse gases came from the fossil fuel extraction and use.
This Season of Creation, we specifically encourage churches and ecumenical communities to engage with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global initiative for international cooperation towards a transition to renewable energy for everyone, end the expansion of coal, oil, and gas, and equitably phase out existing production in keeping with what science shows is needed to address the climate crisis.
Today, there is an urgent need to find and carve our paths that will lead to harmonious relationships with our kapwa and God’s Sangnilikha, to tend to its pains and groaning, and to help build just peace.
Signed:
27 September 2024
The Most Rev. Brent Harry W. Alawas
Acting Chairperson
Ms. Jennifer Ferariza-Meneses
Vice-Chairperson
Pastor Jon Dave A. Angeles
Vice Chairperson
Rev. Leonardo R. Morada
Treasurer
Ms. Minnie Anne M. Calub
General Secretary
