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Caring for Creation Conference
29th March 2008 at Oxford Town Hall
Saturday,
March 29th, was an ambitious day for Christian CND, which hired two large
rooms in Oxford
Town Hall and carried
out a programme of speeches and workshops against a colourful background of
an exhibition and peace organisation stalls. The theme Caring for Creation
looked at the links between peace, justice and sustainability.
In the room
dominated by a painting of the Rape of the Sabines, we were able to study
school children’s reactions to war and pollution, as well as to good and
evil. From St Gregory the Great came a collage showing three devils of the
21st century: pollution, climate change, holes in the ozone layer, from
Northern House the children’s feelings about war, and very angry they were
too. Meanwhile, during the registration of over 200 people, a duo from the
West Papua Independence movement sang and drummed with festive vigour.
10.30 am and
time for the keynote speeches in the Old Library. Caroline Gilbert, the
chief organiser, introduced John Tanner, as our very own ‘Mayor for Peace’,
and John expressed his pleasure ‘as an avowed atheist’ to open yet another
religious event, especially as it was concerned with peace and disarmament.
There
followed a brief ceremony as members of world religions carried their
symbols, inscribed on white card, to be carried to the foot of the
platform. This was to indicate a multi-faith approach to the issues to be
discussed during the day.
Key-note speeches
The first
speaker, the American Dr Edward Echlin, drew on numerous texts to
illustrate his basically ethical argument for caring for creation. Michael Meacher MP, in a hard-hitting
talk, gave the facts of mankind’s guilt: over-population, over-exploitation
of natural resources, industrialisation and technology. Trident replacement
ties us in to US foreign
policy – we should stop behaving like America’s glove-puppet. He predicted that the “nuclear renaissance”
with France,
currently being promoted, will not happen, and generally ended on a more
positive note.
The
afternoon session began with an Interfaith panel commenting on the theme of
the day. Monawar Hussain, Muslim, Chinta Kallie, Hundu & Anthea West,
Buddhist, spoke from their faith traditions of the sacredness of life and
how this is threatened by violence and lack of care for the earth.
The
campaigning speakers were Carol Naughton and Mark Dowd. Carol, past chair
of CND, drew attention to militarisation and damage to the earth – and the
need for progress on the NPT. Mark, an award-winning documentary film maker
focussed on the British response to global warming.
These were
followed by 4 workshops where participants could see ways they could
respond in practice. They were 1) on Palestine
& the Middle East, 2) on how to
respond to a planet under threat, 3) the Peace Tax 7 on ways to prevent our
taxes funding war, and 4) on Nukewatch.
At the end
of the day, two statements rejecting Trident were presented and signed. A
joint statement for CCND & Christian Ecology Link was launched, and an
interfaith statement first drawn up just before the Trident debate,
February 2007 was also available for signatures from people present.
All in all,
about 200 people attended during the day, the majority of whom stayed until
the end of the afternoon. It is intended to produce an illustrated account
of the conference to be distributed via the participating organisations.
CCND are
particularly grateful to CND’s Nuclear Education Trust whose generous grant
made it all possible.
Speakers’
presentations available shortly.
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