International Interfaith Dialogue on a Shared Response to the Environmental Crisis

November 16, 2011
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. EST
Location: Mortara Center Building Map

Preservation and care for the natural environment hold high significance for the world's major faith traditions. Both through theological teachings and service, faith communities play important roles in shaping attitudes and action towards environmental protection and policy. An understanding of the theological underpinnings inspiring and driving care for the environment, and of how, in practice, faith communities mobilize around sustainable development can help inform effective environmental policies at the local, national, and international levels.

At the initiative of the United States Embassy to the Holy See, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, World Faiths Development Dialogue, and the embassy met via live video feed for a conference that explored the intersections of religion and the environment, with a focus on implications for policy. The event falls under a broader State Department initiative to engage religion in policy dialogue. It brought together a group of environmental experts representing the Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions, and representatives from the US government and the World Bank, along with international and interreligious graduate students from three pontifical universities in Rome, as well as Georgetown and other universities in the United States. Five panel presentations and a student-led dialogue explored how different faith traditions view the environment, help to shape social action, and engage in the policy process more broadly.

The exchanges highlighted how much is at stake, for young and old alike, on environment and climate change issues. Spiritual wisdom is a rich source to draw on, as is the mobilizing power of communities. Participants came to the discussion with this understanding but came away in some awe of the richness of ideas that could emerge in two short hours and a gnawing sense that there is far more to do, together.

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International Interfaith Dialogue on a Shared Response to the Environmental Crisis

Participants

Phillip Assis Toggle

About Phillip Assis

Phillip Assis is the Public Affairs Officer at the United States Embassy to the Holy See. Previously, Phillip served as Vice Counsul at the US Embassy in Guyana. He previously spent two years as a Rural Development Agent in Togo with the Peace Corps. Phillip has also worked at the US Energy Association and the World Bank.

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Ertharin Cousin Toggle

About Ertharin Cousin

Ambassador Ertharin Cousin is Chief of the United States Mission to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, which focuses on promoting UN efforts in the fields of emergency food aid, agriculture, fisheries, forests, and rural development financing. While there, she has spearheaded efforts to create new country-led programs and has received praise for her work on securing food relief in Haiti following its 2010 earthquake. Prior to her appointment to Rome in 2009, Ambassador Cousin held numerous positions in both the private and public sectors, specializing in the food industry and hunger prevention. In 1997 she was appointment by the Clinton Administration to serve on the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development before joining the board of America’s Second Harvest – the largest domestic hunger organization in the US – in 2002.

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Ilia Delio Toggle

About Ilia Delio

Ilia Delio, O.S.F. is a member of the Franciscan Servants of the Holy Child Jesus and Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University. She is a theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics, and neuroscience and the import of these for theology. Delio has been a faculty member at Trinity College (Hartford), Washington Theological Union, Woodstock Theological Center, and Georgetown University. She is the author of over a dozen books, including Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness (2015). She holds a B.S. in Biology from DeSales University, master's degree in Biology from Seton Hall University, a doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and a doctorate in Historical Theology from Fordham University.

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Dr. Marian Díaz Toggle

About Dr. Marian Díaz

Dr. Marian Díaz is a former professor of Theology at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

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Yahya Hendi Toggle

About Yahya Hendi

Imam Yayha Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, the first American university to hire a full-time Muslim chaplain. A consistent advocate for interfaith understanding, Hendi is the founder and president of Clergy Beyond Borders and Imams for Universe, Dignity, Human Rights and Dialogue. He holds a master's degree in comparative religions from Hartford Seminary and is currently working on his Ph.D. in comparative religion at Georgetown.

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Kanta Kumari Rigaud Toggle

About Kanta Kumari Rigaud

Kanta Kumari Rigaud has more than 25 years professional experience in natural resources management, environment management, and climate change/adaptation issues. She is currently the Lead Adaptation Specialist and World Bank coordinator of the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) where she oversees the adaptation policy work, knowledge exchange and analytical work related to the adaptation agenda. Through the PPCR program she is working through the teams of the 18 participating countries to nurture shared learning, knowledge exchange and communities of practice to advance the climate resilient agenda. She has worked in a wide range of countries globally, but most recently was in the Middle East North Africa Region of the Bank where she spearheaded several adaptation initiatives related to the coastal zone, rainfed areas, and forests. Previously Kanta worked with World Wildlife Foundation, CSERGE (a policy think tank at the University of East Anglia), and the Global Environment Facility. She has a Masters in Ecology and a PhD on Environment from the United Kingdom.

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Katherine Marshall Toggle

About Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, leads the center’s work on religion and global development. She is also a professor of the practice of development, conflict, and religion in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, teaching diverse courses on the ethics of development work and mentoring students at many levels. She helped to create and now serves as the executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an NGO that works to enhance bridges between different sectors and institutions. In September 2022, she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Marshall has five decades of experience on a variety of development issues in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and the Middle East, particularly those facing the world’s poorest countries. She was a World Bank officer from 1971 to 2006, and she led the World Bank’s faith and ethics initiative between 2000 and 2006. Marshall is a member of the Working Group on Child Rights and Family Values and the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, both part of the Culture of Encounter Project.

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Warren Stone Toggle

About Warren Stone

Rabbi Warren Stone has served as rabbi of Temple Emmanuel in Kensington, Maryland since 1988 and is nationally recognized for his work in the field of faith-inspired environmentalism. He is the co-chair of the National Religion Coalition on Creation Care and the founding chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Committee on the Environment. Stone has also served on the boards of the Global Advisory Committee for Earth Day Network, the Washington Board of Rabbis, and the District of Columbia Green Faith Initiative. Stone was the Jewish United Nations delegate at the 1997 UN Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, and Copenhagen in 2009. He has authored numerous articles on faith-inspired activism and climate change and has led delegations to both Congress and the White House. In 2007, Stone was recognized by Grist, a leading environmentalist publication, as one of the world’s fifteen most influential religious environmentalists. He is author of the "ClimateRabbi" Blog: http://climaterabbi.wordpress.com/

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