WSI News & Updates
· Quilt Raffle
WSI once again thanks Gwen Rosewater for her generous and very personalized gift to our fund-raising effort. Gwen's handmade quilt measures 76" in width by 88" in height and combines a colorful melange of pastel colors with a navy-blue border. WSI will draw the winning raffle ticket on April 22, Earth Day 2000. Tickets are only $1.00 each and can be obtained from our offices. Contact us today to participate in this raffle!
· Board of Directors' News
The Board of Directors of World Stewardship Institute meets regularly to deal with a varied agenda, expanding WSI's outreach into new areas of environmental activism, as well as monitoring current projects, staffing needs, and our budget.
On August 15, 1999, Board members held an afternoon retreat at a lovely spot in the mountains east of Santa Rosa to deliberate on WSI's organization and mission. The Board members discussed four fundamentals of an effective organization: shared vision, clear goals, free-flowing information, and healthy human relationships.
WSI is itself the healthier for its active and creative Board.
· Mexican Interfaith Council
On June 25th, the President of the Mexican Interfaith Council (CIM), Jonathan Rose, visited the offices of WSI during the June Board of Directors' meeting to expand upon the plans for the Congreso in Mexico City entitled "Love and Care of Creation." The Congreso will begin on October the 5th, 2000, the feast day of St. Francis (see "Saint Francis: A Model for Stewardship" on page 7.) Pope John Paul II has designated the year 2000 as a "Jubilee Year." WSI and the CIM collaborated to prepare the following statement of goals:
Goals of "Love and Care of Creation"
Caring for the Earth is more than just an environmental obligation, it is a spiritual responsibility we must learn to embrace. Each living creature is connected with all others. There is only one Earth, one Mankind, and one Creation. Without care for Creation, we destroy God's work and ourselves as well. We believe that a coalition of dedicated and devoted religious communities can unite to promote the Love and Care of Creation.Love and care for creation is an interfaith concern. Religious leaders from virtually every faith and creed recognize this, and have forcefully spoken out about the need for religious communities to address environmental concerns. Thus Pope John Paul II has said, "The ecological crisis is really a moral crisis"; Christian Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I has said, "To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin." The Dalai Lama has noted, "Today more than ever life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility; a Thai Buddhist monk notes, "The entire cosmos is a cooperative." Concern for creation unifies all people of faith.
The words of these religious leaders warn us that, in the absence of a responsible coalition dedicated to the love and care of creation, we humans may ruin God's work. We are presently on the verge of ecocide; killing our planet and ourselves.
CIM and the religious communities of Mexico hereby dedicate our time and human resources to the cause of love and care of creation. We pledge, to the utmost of our abilities, to carry out the following three endeavors:
1. To educate members of our religious communities in their responsibilities unto creation as part of their faith;
2. To instruct people in our communities to become trained, skillful coworkers in environmental matters;
3. To initiate and conduct ecological activities in our local communities, putting into practice our environmental consciousness informed and inspired by our love and care for creation.
CIM and the religious communities of Mexico intend to encourage and support all those environmental groups whose goals coincide with ours, and who invite or permit us to participate in their activities.
We need to make a difference. So help us God.
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