Churches told “time running out” for action to halt destruction of environment
In an address at the closing ceremony for the launch of the Oikotree movement in the Philippines in December 2008, theologian Park Seong-Won warned that time is running out on the ecological clock. Park declared this is the moment to move from talking to action to halt destruction of the earth’s natural environment.
“The ecological time clock warns that only five minutes are left before this beautiful planet earth comes to its end. This is the time-frame when our movement is launched.
Where are we now in terms of the fate of planet earth? According to “Contra-Genesis”–a parody poem written by an anonymous person from Nicaragua about human destruction of creation–today is the second day before it will all end.
Finally man said, ‘Let us make God in our image and likeness,
so no other God will arise to compete with us.
Let us say that God thinks as we think, hates as we hate, and kills as we kill.’
It was the second day before all ended.
This is the kind of spirituality we have in this time of human history. This is the time and space and situation in which we launch the Oikotree movement.
At the General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Ghana 2004 when the Accra Confession was declared, we heard that within 50 years, 25 percent of animal and plant species will vanish due to global warming. But this prediction is already out of date.
Dr. Clara Deser, senior scientist of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in USA, said in her interview with a Korean paper on 3 March 2008 that the global warming process is advancing 10 or 20 years faster than expected.
At the same time, the impact of the global economic crisis is worsening. In the United States, since the start of 2007, almost two million people lost their jobs and there are forecasts for more. Yet last year, chief executive officers in the United States were paid 344 times the pay of a typical worker. The neo-liberal economic globalization time is also 23:55.
This is the time and situation in which we have launched the Oikotree movement. We have no time to do more research, no time for more debate and no time to gather information and no time to draft a report. Only five minutes are left before all end. Unless we move right now, we cannot guarantee whether our children will really be given a space and time to survive, no, our very own survival is at stake.
Do we have hope? Do we dare to hope? Where is the source of hope?
If this prodigal world turns its way back to God’s Oikos, the nature in which the incarnated God dwells with us and works with us, we still have hope. A crucial question is whether we are ready to work with God.
By launching the Oikotree movement, we are ready and are committing ourselves to work with God to transform life-killing civilization into life-giving Oikos. As the prodigal son discovered plenty of food when he returned to his father’s home, this prodigal human civilization will find the abundant life if we return to God’s life-giving Oikos now. Let us respond to the invitation of God.”
Park Seong-Won is a professor of theology at Young Nam Theological University, South Korea.
(WARC UPDATE, March 2009)
