"Light in the darkness"

While areas of the Philippines were flooded and in darkness from Typhoon Hagupit—the second major storm to strike that nation in a year—an interfaith group holding solar lights stood in the night some five-thousand miles away on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.

Their message was simple: Now is the time for unity because now is the time for lasting climate change solutions.

The Jerusalem event was one of many that faith groups held in thirteen countries to call for progress towards an international agreement on climate change. Building on the momentum from the People’s Climate March in September, the solar-lighted gatherings took place to call attention to the United Nation’s climate talks taking place this week in Lima, Peru.

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development organized the Jerusalem event as part of the project #LightForLima. Dozens of people gathered at the Old City's Jaffa Gate to walk together onto the ramparts of the Old City walls with solar lights. Interfaith discussions on climate change were then held at Jerusalem University College on Mt. Zion.

According to Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Executive Director of the interfaith center, “the event demonstrates that people of many faiths can come together in Jerusalem to promote a sustainable future for us and our children. It also helps to show the possibility of interfaith collaboration to overcome tension in Jerusalem.”

A Catholic organizer of the gathering, Lucy Atkinson, said that "the event really brought home the message that we are called to be light in the darkness. The results of climate change are only bad. We need to change and ask our leaders to change. Otherwise, there is going to greater injustices, conflict and greed in the world.”

Other Catholics taking part included two students of the Dormition Abbey German Academic Program of Theology.

Calling to mind the religious tradition of candle-lit vigils, many of the gatherings used solar lamps. For each solar lamp used in #LightforLima, the organization SolarAid is delivering two lamps to African rural communities. The solar lamps will replace kerosene lanterns whose noxious fumes cause thousands of deaths annually.

#LightForLima was coordinated by OurVoices.net, a multi-faith, global climate campaign. Leaders from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian communities, and people from a variety of spiritual backgrounds, led events in countries including Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, the UK, and the USA.

Senior religious leaders from several traditions wrote prayers specifically for the campaign, with Imam Zaid Shakir, H.H. Radhanath Swami, and Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba encouraging their followers to pray for world leaders during the Lima meetings.

An international network of Jewish leaders, Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth, is planning an OurVoices.net Hanukkah initiative for soon after #LightForLima.

Photos: Gundula M. Tegtmeyer for the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.