Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development is a nonprofit organization. Its projects promote inter-religious cooperation on environmental sustainability and involve religious leaders, seminary students, and communities in several countries. Founded in 2010, the ICSD is based in Jerusalem.
Engaging Seminaries Project
This project encourages Spiritual divinity and theological schools and seminaries to integrate lessons on faith and ecology. As part of the project, ICSD has published multiple reports on faith and ecology courses being offered by seminaries around the world, and created the world's largest online syllabus collection of such courses.ICSD also organizes conferences for seminary deans, faculty, and others on religion and ecology. They help equip seminaries to prepare the next generation of religious leaders to engage in Creation care and environmental justice. They have co-organized six conferences so far: The Southeast Symposium on Ecologically Informed Theological Education in Atlanta in March 2018, The Midwest Symposium on Ecologically Informed Theological Education in 2017, the Washington D.C. Symposium on Ecologically Informed Theological Education in 2017, a New York City conference at Union Theological Seminary in 2016, a Jerusalem conference in 2015, and a Jerusalem conference in 2014.
Report on Faith and Ecology Courses in North American Seminaries
ICSD published a Report on Faith and Ecology Courses in North American Seminaries. The release of the report in June 2015 coincided with the release of Pope Francis’s Encyclical "Laudato Si: On care for our Common Home." The report was revised and expanded in September and November, 2015, following input from seminary deans. Research for the report indicated that the number and diversity of courses on faith and ecology at institutions training seminarians in North America increased in the past number of years. Out of 231 seminaries investigated, over 165 courses were found to have been offered at over 55 seminaries in the United States and Canada.Report on Catholic Ecology Courses in Catholic Seminaries
This report highlights ecologically themed courses offered at Catholic seminaries in North America, Rome, and the Holy Land.Report on Faith and Ecology Teaching in Holy Land Seminaries
Released in March 2016, the Report on Faith and Ecology Teaching in the Holy Land Seminaries highlights the faith and ecology courses offered by various seminaries in the Holy Land, with a focus on Christian and Jewish seminaries.Online Faith and Ecology Syllabus Collection
In collaboration with the Green Seminary Initiative and the Seminary Stewardship Alliance, ICSD provides an online, searchable syllabus collection of courses on faith and ecology.The Faith and Science Earth Alliance
The Faith and Science Earth Alliance is a project of ICSD and an offshoot of the United Planet Faith & Science Initiative. FSEA holds low-impact, web-based meetings of scientists and faith leaders from across the globe. These meetings are edited into videos which get disseminated through social media and news outlets to promote public awareness, policy, and action. The FSEA also holds public events featuring presentations by these leaders. In December 2014, in collaboration with Stuart H. Scott's UPFSI, the Faith and Science Earth Alliance organized an event at Columbia University in New York City featuring eleven clergy, scientists, and others speaking on faith, science and ecology. A short video was produced following the event and distributed on social media. The event was held in advance of the 2014 People's Climate March.Interfaith Environmental Conferences
Interfaith Religious Leaders Press Conference, Jerusalem, 2017On July 26, 2017, ICSD organized a press release conference event to bring Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders together to urge people of all faiths to help curb climate change. Speakers included Rabbi David Rosen, AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs; Father Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land; and Kadi Iyad Zahalha, judge of the Muslim Sharia Courts. They united in order to urge faith leaders to subordinate religious differences in the fight against exploitation of natural resources, waste generation, water scarcity and climate change. They reached a consensus on the religious basis for environmental sustainability and addressing climate change. At the event, a new letter signed by 36 Israeli Orthodox rabbis were released, calling for action on climate change.
Participation in the International Seminar on Science & Religion for Environment Care, Spain, 2016
In June, 2016, the International Seminar on Science and Religion for Environment Care took place in Torreciudad, Spain, and was organized by the Environmental Ethics chair of University of , the Tatiana Perez de Guzman el Bueno and the Social Promotion of Culture . ICSD's founder and executive director, Rabbi Yonatan Neril, was one of seventeen participants in the Seminar, and participated in a press conference in Madrid following the event.The Seminar produced a , which stated: "The vast majority of people living on our planet believe in the importance of spiritual and religious traditions in their daily lives ." As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si': "This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity”. The Declaration contained six points on the impact science and religions can have together in promoting ecological sustainability, and emphasized how "we need Science and Religion working together to make this necessary change happen."
Participation in the Parliament of World Religions, Salt Lake City, 2015
The Parliament was partially focused on climate change, and featured religious leaders speaking out on the moral imperative to act. At the ‘Climate Change and You’ event, speakers included H.H. Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith, Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, and ICSD director Rabbi Yonatan Neril. The event was organized and facilitated by the Global Interfaith WASH alliance. Rabbi Neril also spoke on a panel on Values Based Approaches to Social Justice & Sacred Activism, which was organized by Brahma Kumaris.Participation in the Islamic Climate Change Symposium, Istanbul, 2015
The International Islamic Climate Change Symposium took place on August 17–18, 2015 in Istanbul and centered upon the launch of the Islamic Climate Change Declaration. Muslim clerics gathered with clergy of other faiths to offer, in the words of the Declaration, an "urgent and radical reappraisal" of modern society. Rabbi Yonatan Neril, ICSD's founder and director, attended and spoke at the Symposium.Faith and Ecology Conference for Seminarians, Jerusalem, 2014
On October 22, 2014, ICSD organized the Faith and Ecology Conference in Jerusalem, which brought together over 100 Christians, Jewish and Muslim clergy and seminary students. The gathering provided tools and inspiration to expand faith-based environmental teaching and action within seminaries. Religious figures of all three Abrahamic faiths spoke on the connection between faith teachings and ecological stewardship, including Bishop William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of Yeshivat Hesder Petach Tikva, and Imam Wassim Barhum of Ein Rafa. A scientific perspective on climate change and ecological issues was provided by Dr. Nurit Hashimony Yaffe from the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo.The Conference was co-organized by ICSD, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and the Salesian Pontifical University—Jerusalem campus.
Interfaith Climate and Energy Conference, Jerusalem, 2012
The ICSD and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung held the Interfaith Climate and Energy Conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2012. The Conference featured Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders from Israel, and via pre-recorded religious leaders who spoke on the ethical need and religious basis for improvements on climate change and the use of renewable energy. A video was filmed as part of the conference. Theophilos III, Rabbi Daniel Sperber, and Sheik Muhammed Amara.Collaboration on Interfaith Event at UN Climate Change Conference, South Africa, 2011
ICSD collaborated with the Southern Africa Faith Communities Environment Institute and The Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change to organize two events in conjunction with the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The events featured a number of religious leaders and scientists who called for immediate action to address climate change. The speakers included Bishop Geoff Davis representing Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Christiana Figueres, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mohandas Gandhi and a Member of Parliament in South Africa.Interfaith Eco Forum, Jerusalem, 2011
In July 2011, ICSD held a panel discussion featuring Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious figures speaking on the importance of environmental conservation and how it relates to their respective religions. One speaker, Auxiliary Bishop to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Msgr. William Shomali, stressed, "We are tourists on this land, and we will leave it one day, but we must leave it clean for the next generations, we must be accountable for how we use this common home." These sentiments were echoed by Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Affairs Haj Salah Zuheika and AJC International Director of Inter-religious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen, who agreed that respect for nature is equivalent to a respect for G-d and for G-d's creations.One Home Video Project
In 2012, ICSD produced an interfaith eco video, "We Have Only One Home: Global Faith Leaders Addressing the Ecological Crisis." In the video, global faith leaders - including the Dalai Lama, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and Chief Rabbi Sacks - deliver a message of inspiration on the importance of protecting the earth, our common home. They advocate action for environmental sustainability. It is the most recent addition to the web's largest video collection on faith and ecology, assembled by the ICSD, and was posted on a number of sites including Deseret News and the Huffington Post The video was produced with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Julia Burke Foundation.Holy Land Faith Leaders
ICSD submitted a statement to the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land pertaining to the Rio +20 United Nations Earth Summit. CRIHL represents the highest religious authorities in Israel. The statement by the ICSD proposed that inter-religious strife should be put aside so that people can work together to better the future.In May 2011, CRIHL endorsed another statement submitted by ICSD calling for religious and political leaders and faith communities to act to curb climate change. Some of the statement read, "We call on adherents of our faiths in the Holy Land and worldwide to address this crisis by undertaking a deep reassessment of our spiritual and physical relationship to this God-given planet and how we consume, use and dispose of its blessed resources... We hope that environmental challenges in our common home of the Holy Land and Planet Earth move religious adherents to overcome inter-religious strife and work together for ours and our children’s common well-being."