[Anglican Communion News Service] The third United Nations Oceans Conference (UNOC3) has concluded in Nice, France, at which Anglicans were represented as part of the multifaith group Faiths for UNOC3.
The Rev. Glenn Ruffle, the Anglican Communion’s U.N. representative in Geneva, attended the conference as part of the Faiths for UNOC3 group. He also was part of the delegation that presented a collaborative declaration signed by more than 80 faith-based organizations to U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen and Ambassador Peter Thomson, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean.
Ruffle, who also is assistant permanent representative to the U.N. for the Anglican Communion, said, “As we move forward from UNOC3, we have to start living as real followers of Jesus—and it will cost us. The convenient flights, the plastic bottles, the shares in oil, the lack of interest in far-off sinking islands—these things have to end. Instead, we need to be marked by our radical love for our neighbors, near and far, and be willing to carry their suffering with them, united in caring for the oceans that sustain us all.”
The declaration was created with input from the Anglican Communion U.N. team, as well as contributions from other faiths. It proclaimed the collective acknowledgement on behalf of people of faith of the responsibility of humanity to care for and protect aquatic ecosystems. It outlined key policy amendments and implementations that it supports, including protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, ratification of the “high seas treaty” and the cessation of deep-sea mining.
Martha Jarvis, permanent representative to the U.N. for the Anglican Communion, said, “In all this, we take our lead from ocean communities, who see clearly the urgency of the climate change threat and are often the first to act.” She added, “Indigenous Anglicans from the Pacific have inspired others to rethink their relationship with the ocean—understanding it as water of life and hope, the lungs of our world—and to rethink the consumption and emission patterns that pollute it. We follow a God of reconciliation and it is our responsibility to reconcile the damage caused to God’s creation and to those who feel the consequences most acutely.”
The text of the multifaith declaration is available here.