Close to 40 Jesuits, religious and lay companions from across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific gathered in Kompong Cham, Cambodia, from 11 to 15 July for the first JCAP meeting on ecology.
Reconciliation with Creation is a JCAP priority engagement and the meeting aimed to build a common understanding and shared approach to environmental issues among the Provinces.
It was held along the Mekong River, which runs through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, to highlight the importance of environmental stewardship. Over 60 million people depend on this river and its tributaries for food, water, transport and other aspects of their daily lives.
At the meeting, the JCAP Ecology Task Force presented “Our Environmental Way of Proceeding”, a document developed to help the Conference connect our diverse efforts in ecological relations, ground our values and help move forward our ecology strategy.Participants were asked to provide comments and suggestions to the draft and based on that feedback, a revised document should be available in the next few months.
The Reconciliation with Creation project seeks to bring about greater understanding and respect for our environment and our place in it, increase our capacity to respond to the effects of climate change on our world, especially the poor, and join with others in promoting justice and the common good. It aims to do this through concrete programs and initiatives,under three themes – Jesuit Institutions and Lifestyles, Youth Education for Sustainability and Governance of Natural Resources.
At the core though, as Fr Patxi Alvarez SJ, head of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat (SJES), reminded the group, the project and the Jesuit Social Apostolate is a service of hope – we are called to be companions and to bring hope – and we receive hope from the people we serve.
More information on the project and can be found in the Social Justice and Ecology section of this website.
In addition, two participants share their reflections on the meeting.
– Fr Pedro Walpole SJ – Engaging ecologically
– Jun-G Bargayo, SJ – Workshop, also a Retreat
