Faiths roped in to help green movement

CHURCHES, temples and mosques can help in the green movement by starting recycling campaigns or holding sermons on green issues, the Singapore Environmental Council (SEC) suggested yesterday.

Mr Peter Paap, the SEC volunteer coordinator, said that such contributions would go a long way to make Singapore a greener country.

He was speaking at the Faith and Nature workshop where representatives of various faiths came together for the first time to promote understanding of inter-faith teachings on environmental care.

Yesterday, Friar John Paul Tan from the Franciscan Friars said his order had responded to the ecological problems with its tree-planting campaigns and bi-annual jumbo sales which promote recycling as well as raise funds.

According to him, the Franciscan Order has a deep heritage in ecology due to the teaching of St Francis of Assisi, who was pronounced the Patron of Ecology by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

But he agreed that more can be done as environmental consciousness is not widespread among religious leaders.

Religious leaders took turns to extol the need to respect nature, cut down wastage and consumption by living simply in order to reverse the damage.

Mr Fazlun Khalid, director of the international Alliance of Religions and Conservation which initiated the workshop with the Singapore Archdiocesan Conference of Religions, said that the green movement has largely been led by secular groups because the issues were taught in schools and not in places of worship.

This is in spite of all religious teachings which speak of the need to respect nature, such as the Muslim act of touching the forehead to the ground in reverence to God and His creation, he added.

'There has to be a change in the emphasis on religious teachings. People have to recognise their practical responsibilities to the rest of creation.

'People need not wait till they enter university to learn about the environment. They can learn about it while still young through their faiths.'