The World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation co-organize Youth for Eco-Justice, starting parallel to the UN Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, at the end of November. In a series of blog posts, the participants are introducing themselves

Name: Marcelo D. Leites
Age: 26 years old
Function: Regional Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation in Latin American and the Caribbean - WSCF Global Water campaign and Eco Justice programme Chair
Church of Origin: Brethern - independent
Country of Origin: Montevideo, Uruguay, living in Buenos Aires, Argentina

What is really important for your life?

There are several important things in my life, sometimes we need to have priorities about what really is important. I think that one of these very important things is the possibility to improve solidarity, approaches to work justice and peace between us and the creation. It is also to improve ourselves in relation with our brothers and sisters - to be new Men and Women each day, analyzing power and struggling against it.

What are your wishes for the negotiations on Climate Change in Durban?

Civil Society Organizations have a lot of expectations around each COP. After several failures, a lot of Civil Society Organizations, even Churches and Ecumenical Organizations are advocating to the leaders of the world to make changes and establish justice and global agreements. The paradigm of justice agreements is not a part of the common sense of the parties. There are several interests around the possible changes and the recognition of inequities between countries: power and economical interests. I hope for the better possible understanding between the parties, and above all the ecumenical and society family an advocacy actor, so that we make a difference there!

What would you like to do so that your church/country becomes more environmentally just?

The World Student Christian Federation in Latin America and the Caribbean is launching a regional project on Eco-Justice and Water. We are working with 11 countries on the region in a mid-term programme that includes youth environment and justice training, advocacy training, advocacy work in communitarian places (national and regional levels) showing how the youth and students from Grassroots Organization, the Student Christian Movement (from WSCF) and the youth from churches can make a difference, work on issues related to Eco-justice around the region, and work on this issue from a popular reading of the Bible.

In our first step we are launching an itinerary photo exhibition about the conflict between communities around water issues. We will show this photo exhibition in at least seven countries of the region and in two important international events: The Conference on Sustainable Development of the UN in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, RIO+20 and in the Latin-American Water Tribunal, in Buenos Aires Argentina.

This training and the participation in the COP meeting is very helpful for our own commitment in Latin America and the Caribbean. We want to engage young people and students on this matter, to get them learn from this global experience around the Student Christian Movement through our WSCF WATER campaign.

The World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation co-organize Youth for Eco-Justice, starting parallel to the UN Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, at the end of November. In a series of blog posts, the participants are introducing themselves

Name: Stanislau Paulau
Age: 22
Function: Student of M.A. Programme “Intercultural Theology”
Country of Origin: Belarus
Church of Origin: Belarusian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate

What is really important for your life?
For me it is important always to go further in my relationships with
creation, people and God and to discover something new in this ongoing
process. I think that my feeling of life was precisely put into the
words by St. Gregory of Nyssa: “The end of each discovery becomes the
starting point for the discovery of something higher, and the ascent
continues. Thus our ascent is unending. We go from the beginning to
beginning by way of beginnings without end.” So, I appreciate to be a
beginner.

What are your wishes for the negotiations on Climate Change in Durban?
In Durban we will have a unique space for sharing and learning and I
do hope that we will manage to engage into a fruitful dialogue with
each other. In my opinion it is very important to bring our own
perspectives on the issue of Eco-Justice into discussion and enrich
each other by this way. I wish that we as Christian youth from all
over the world will build a common vision for the future of our common
Earth.

What would you like to do so that your church/country becomes more environmentally just?
I think that the Church should more intensively stress that everything
that lives and breathes is sacred and beautiful in the eyes of God and
do everything to protect this beauty. And that should start from the
parish/youth or bible group level. I would be happy to be able to
contribute on the place where I live to this understanding that the
whole world is a sacrament. Such an understanding of the world could
become a source of environmental justice.

The World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation co-organize Youth for Eco-Justice, starting parallel to the UN Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, at the end of November. In a series of blog posts, the participants are introducing themselves

Name: Caroline Foster
Age: 28
Country of Origin: Canada

Church of Origin: Works as the network and young adult coordinator for KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives. KAIROS unites 11 churches and faith-based organizations in faithful action for justice and peace. Attends a Presbyterian church in Toronto.

What is really important in my life:

Family, friends, and working for a more just and sustainable community locally and globally. I find that the more I learn about the world, the more work I see that needs to be done to ensure that this planet can sustain future generations. As a person whose daily life is not directly adversely affected by climate change, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the impact my country has had on marginalized communities at home and abroad.

What my wishes are for the negotiations on Climate Change in Durban: It is my hope that the world leaders will commit to a long-term sustainable plan to reduce global warming. I hope that the leaders from the Global North will commit to dealing with the ecological debt owed to the majority world and that a plan that incorporates the voices and perspectives of the Global South would be put into action.

What would you like to do so that your church/country becomes more environmentally just?

The experience and learning that I hope to gain from the programme will assist me in facilitating workshops and planning events related to eco-justice. KAIROS has two explicit foci; human rights and ecological justice. KAIROS has recently identified working with and engaging youth in those program areas as a priority and a major component of the strategic plan for the coming years. Over the next year, we are looking at hosting youth ecumenical gatherings across Canada. I believe that my experience at Youth for Eco-Justice will be useful in helping to shape these gatherings. I believe that as a young person I have the opportunity and responsibility to work towards a more sustainable and environmentally just future for my children and all of God’s creation.

The World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation co-organize Youth for Eco-Justice, starting parallel to the UN Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, at the end of November. In a series of blog posts, the participants are introducing themselves

Name: Kristi Holmberg
Age: 21
Function: Undergraduate Student at Luther College, Decorah, IA, United States
Country of Origin: United States of America
Church of Origin: Evangelical Covenant Church of America/Associate Member of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA)

What is really important for your life?

My longstanding hope is to learn how to love. According to one of my favorite authors, Shane Claiborne, “this love is not sentimental, but heart-wrenching; the most difficult and most beautiful thing in the world.” Cultivating community and forming deep and meaningful relationships is of utmost importance to me. But this love also drives me to care deeply about causes I am passionate about: socio-economic justice and poverty, immigration and refugees, interfaith dialogue and engagement, and now, sustainability and climate change. I follow Jesus’ example for compassionate and redemptive engagement in the world by actively entering into the brokenness and working to redeem it, though often in small ways. Learning is also central to this call as I continue my studies in religion, sociology, and writing and risk failure in growing and life-changing experiences.

What are your wishes for the negotiations on Climate Change in Durban?

I have read articles recently that have been doubtful about the effectiveness of the upcoming negotiations in Durban. Climate change is a heavy, daunting issue. Convention after convention, the issue can feel gridlocked. I am also aware that not everyone in the U.S. knows what the UNFCCC is nor the impact it could and should have. I am easily frustrated by this reality, but I have learned from my own personal path despair is downspiraling and dehabilitating.

If we are to continue to address climate change and collaborate on a global scale, I believe we must choose hope, not despair. I want to see this hope manifested in effective, collaborative international policies at the UN negotiations and in international leaders who take responsibility for their nations’ actions. I hope our nations’ leaders would seek common good and common justice and not be swayed by vested interests or economic gains. I hope to see negotiations that address the disproportionate impact climate change has on the poor. I pray the youthful, passionate, presence of the Church with the Youth for Eco-Justice programme will provide the energy, innovation, and spirit-filled presence for fruitful dialogue among diverse groups of people. While its tempting to be pessimistic and doubtful, I have great expectations for the UNFCCC negotiations because of this hope.

What would you like to do so that your church/country becomes more environmentally just?

With the upcoming presidential 2012 election in the United States, it is crucial for the candidates to publicly acknowledge and address climate change, and take responsbility for the United States’ contribution to the problem of climate change. Unfortunately, many people in the U.S. are ignorant or apathetic about climate change because many of us are insulated from the consequences of our actions.

The most important thing I can do right now is find a voice to preach the news of climate change so that people will be compelled to care, rather than be paralyzed by despair. I am eager to show a vision for sustainability through sharing my own story and struggles, not by burdening people with a long list of things to do. I would also like to mobilize youth, in particular, to vote and participate actively in our democracy before, during, and beyond the elections with the issue of climate change.

I see the relationship between socio-economic justice and environmental justice as the entry-point for Christians, in particular, to respond to climate change. I have witnessed the church become co-opted by consumerism and individualism that pervades my culture. But I do not think the Gospel was proclaimed to make people complacent and comfortable. I think the message of the Gospel is counter-cultural: calling us to follow Jesus and care for the poor and oppressed. As sea levels rise, storm cells intensify, and droughts worsen, climate change will continue to have a disproportionate impact on the poor. My goal is to educate faith communities following the Youth for Eco-Justice training, help people see the connection between socio-economic justice and eco-justice, and ask them to envision: What does it look like to bring the kingdom of God to earth here and now? ? I pray faith communities will mobilize people in my country by cultivating personal transformation and organizing for social and political change on the grassroots level. I pray the leaders of the church will cultivate its prophetic voice in response to this issue and continue to discern the right questions (instead of getting stuck on an answer from the past): What is the church? How should it respond to our contemporary contexts? What does it mean to follow Jesus today?