The 60th DPI/NGO Conference 2007

The Annual DPI/NGO Conference was held September 5-7, 2007, at the United Nations in New York. Like previous years, the NGO Office had invited as many as four RSCJ, preferably liaison persons for their Province, to gather for a whole week to learn more about the functioning of the UN and the role of NGOs, and to attend the conference itself. The theme of the 2007 conference was Climate Change: How It Impacts Us All. This report walks through the week in a diary-like style and draws largely on the reflections of our four visiting RSCJ participants from abroad. During our debriefing session we looked ahead to 2008 when the conference will be held in Paris, France.

Sunday, 2 September 2007
Throughout the day we arrive in New York. Some of us are pretty exhausted from long hours on the plane. Our warm welcome in three different RSCJ communities feels like home.

Monday, 3 September 2007
We meet with the IBVM group at St. Hilda House for a day of general introduction and orientation to the UN, NGOs, the MDGs and more. “I felt privileged to be able to participate in the DPI/NGO conference and felt grateful to see and to appreciate more of the Society’s work and efforts at the NGO Office. The experience for me was overwhelming and unique in many ways.”

Tuesday, 4 September 2007
As a prelude to the conference, we hear, together with the IBVMs, Carol Zinn, SSJ teach us passionately about the Earth Charter. “The Earth Charter (www.earthcharter.org) calls us to search for common ground in the midst of diverse nations, cultures, religions and spiritualities and to embrace a new, shared ethical vision for ‘Earthland’ (a term used by Tariq Banuri, Future Sustainability Programme of the Stockholm Environment Institute). Among the sources of the Earth Charter are contemporary science, the teachings of indigenous peoples and the wisdom of Earth’s great religions and philosophical traditions.” We have prepared a prayer, adapted from the Earth Charter, which we offer to all of our sisters worldwide in preparation for Chapter 2008. This prayer will be posted on the NGO Office page under a separate heading.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Finally the conference starts, we all look forward to learn, exchange and dialogue about Climate Change: How It Impacts Us All. The opening session is in the large General Assembly Hall. “At first I felt somewhat daunted by the thought of going to a conference at the United Nations; but when I walked into the big assembly hall I had a sense of this place being our place, a place of and for the people, not only for world leaders and significant people. The participants at the conference numbering over 1700 were ordinary like myself and this simply affirmed for me the sense of the United Nations being ‘ours’.”

During lunch hour, we can choose from twelve different workshops to attend. Later in the afternoon there is a panel discussion on the scientific evidence of climate change. “The issue of Climate Change affects the totality of each human being, body, mind and spirit. I do not understand too much about scientific interpretations, yet from the spiritual point of view I felt that we all have the same responsibility to protect and join God’s continual creation. When God first created this universe, God felt everything was “good.” This energy from “goodness” is still overflowing into the entire universe. We have no right to break this universal flow of goodness. In this creation there is no difference between big or small. We all share in the same responsibility in this spiritual domain. What we can carry out, and work for the peace and well-being of all nations is to join God’s continual creation. I pray that we are all to take up our own “goodness” as co-creators with God, and continue to build God’s Kingdom of “Goodness”, and allowing this universal energy to continue to flow in the whole world today.”

Thursday, 6 September 2007
More roundtables and discussions on issues such as indigenous peoples, culture and traditional knowledge; water security and climate change; best land use practices; and the economics and politics of energy and climate change. “The reality of climate change has an impact on all people, as well as on all of life and all the systems of the planet; it is an emergency that calls for lifestyle changes and all can respond in some way. Both micro and macro issues arose during the conference weaving in and out of each other – responses such as recycling activities and use of long-life light bulbs contrasted sharply with issues of rising seas, desertification, and massive carbon emissions. Future scenarios and the current situation in many places is certainly very serious but at the same time this emergency is an invitation to the world community to respond as a global community and to put aside hostilities and divisions.”

Twelve more workshops are offered during lunch time. One of them is entitled Every Voice Counts: Sustain the Abundance, and is sponsored by the Society of the Sacred Heart. Four speakers, from Haiti, Kenya, Philippines and the USA share their own experience of why we need to protect the environment; about 70 people attend.

Friday, 7 September 2007
More roundtables, panel discussions and midday workshops. In the afternoon, the conference adopts the conference Declaration. “At the beginning of the conference, a draft declaration to come from the conference was presented for the participants to make submissions and edits. Among the 60 responses were three from us, RSCJ, and our suggestions were included in the final document” (for the final text of the declaration, please see www.unngodpiconference.org As educators we feel a call in paragraph 5(b) of the declaration, which recommends that “all educational institutions and media organizations more effectively educate about the issue of climate change with special emphasis on youth.”

The closing session has two surprises in store for us: the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ICPP), Mr. Rajendra Pachauri from India addresses the plenary as well as Rolland Smith, “a journalist by profession and poet by choice.” “Rolland Smith proclaimed a gorgeous hymn - followed by beautiful, large slides – to Mother Earth, men and women. According to his words and images, Mother Earth was pictured by lovely and gracious women flanked by children, animals, trees, and plants and surrounded by nature. He began his poem:

“It is also appropriate to reflect on the opening of our hearts to the radiance of the omnipresent feminine aspect of nature.”

He continued regretting the drama that our planet is facing and invited us to meditate. His final assertion was:

“We have the power to change it and to heal the Earth.”

Ways of production that have priorities such as power and money, economic profit, and domination of nature through science and technology, are mainly responsible for the situation of the planet today. As a result of this pseudo-development a massive increase of poverty, instability and conflicts, violence, migration and chaos are happening.

As we are all citizens of “Earthland” – a community of people – we are shouting for a sustainable development which will bring us peace, security and democracy. For that we need partnerships at all levels in order to change our destiny and save Mother Earth.”

The PowerPoint presentation of Rolland Smith can be viewed online at www.un.org/ then click “Moment of Reflection” at the bottom of the page.

Saturday, 8 September 2007
We spend the morning reflecting together, as RSCJ, on our week-long experience in New York. “Throughout our days of preparation and the conference itself, I heard two major global problems relating to climate change being repeated. They are: poverty and equity. I also heard the hopeful word, partnerships offered as a way forward for all. Partnerships imply creating together what none of us can do alone. Each one brings everything she has and something new is created together. For me as a woman of faith, this means starting with myself. With a much deeper understanding of Earth as one community of life and of all I have to bring, I commit to making choices that decrease my use of fossil fuels in my day to day life. I am also much more aware of the impact that local and national involvement in JPIC education and advocacy work can have at the UN and I re-commit to this ministry.”

We also looked ahead to the conference in 2008, in Paris, France. “Our RSCJ delegation was very international (from Asia, Australia, Latin America and North America), but I noticed that over half the participants at this conference, including myself, were from North America. We, as RSCJ contributed to making this conference more representative of the global community. Next year’s conference will be in Paris, France. I challenge us to do everything possible to ensure that next year’s delegation be made up of NGO liaison representatives from French speaking countries, especially those from French-speaking Africa.”

In the late afternoon, the IBVMs join us again and together with all RSCJ in the New York Area we celebrate liturgy and enjoy dinner and each other’s company. “The final reunion section was excellent, when all RSCJ in the New York Area and all IBVM Sisters and friends who participated in the DPI/NGO conference came to celebrate together in the 80th Street community. It was a beautiful experience for me. I felt the open welcoming family spirit filled the whole community room: A true sense of international family gathering and sharing.”