The National Council of
Churches in India and the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action has jointly
initiated a pilot programme with four local congregations to address the
climate justice issue, thereby accompanying them in their journey towards
becoming ‘green congregations’. This programme is an outcome of the National
Church Leaders’ Consultation on ‘Ecumenical Diaconia at the Grassroots’ held
from 24 -26 August 2015 in Bangalore.
Since there has been a
long standing concern to strengthen churches in North India, the four local
congregations belonging to NCCI Member churches come mainly from this region.
The four congregations are part of the Church of North India (Amritsar
Diocese), Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church (Ranchi) Hindustani Covenant
Church (Pune) and Methodist Church in India (Delhi Conference).
In order to launch this
programme, NCCI and CASA jointly organized a workshop for the responsible
persons from the above mentioned churches on ‘Congregation Based Diaconia:
Towards Climate Justice’ on 3 – 4 August 2016, at CNI Bhavan, Delhi, India.
There were twenty participants including women, youth, lay and clergy from
these four local congregations. They will constitute the nucleus of their own
congregations in implementing the climate justice programme in their respective
grass-roots contexts.
This pilot programme aims
at developing a mature understanding of Ecumenical Diaconia at the grassroots,
and to evolve relevant diaconal and missional interventions at the local
congregational level, addressing the issue of climate justice from devotional
faith, theological, ministerial and missional perspectives, in the context of un-earth-friendly
‘growth’, ‘development’ and ‘globalization’ policies of the governments. The
underlying principle is that of being responsible stewards of God’s ‘good’
creation.
In the course of one
year, the four local congregations will start a process and cultivate a
life-style of becoming green communities of love, justice and inclusivity. They
will thus be expected to become torch bearers for local congregations all over
the country who will follow their example.
Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad,
Dr. Sushant Agrawal, Ms. Ruth Yamima Kachhap, Ms. Prita Samantaroy, Mr.
Sanjiv Tigga, Ms. Ekta Lall and Rev. R. Christopher Rajkumar facilitated various
sessions in this workshop.
Co-ordinators:
Rev. R. Christopher Rajkumar
National Council of Churches in India
Ms.
Ekta Lall
Church’s Auxiliary for Social
Action
