Way of Proceeding

Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ often spoke of “our way of proceeding”, and one of the first steps the Conference took when it made Reconciliation with Creation a priority engagement was to discern our way of proceeding in relation to the environment. 

In 2011, the Ecology Task Force of Asia Pacific developed Our Environmental Way of Proceeding, a document provides us with a framework and an operative spirituality that guides us in an experience of, and deepens our relationship with, creation and Creator.  It guides our ecology strategy and action plan.

Our Environmental Way of Proceeding consists of seven points that deepen our response to the challenge of reconciliation with creation in our lives and institutes.

1. We acknowledge God as Creator of all life and find some quiet moment each day to appreciate this with gratitude.
2. We as an apostolic body seek to reflect and speak of what we experience and discern of our relationship with and responsibility for the natural systems. 
3. We recognize that the children we see today inherit this living world and as we choose to sustain it by finding God at work in all things, we humbly work with young people. 
4. We seek to reach out in hope to the poor who are increasingly losing their livelihoods and ecological sustainability and incorporate their concerns in our care for the web of life. 
5. We support good actions in contemporary culture and explore needed alternatives with decision; we partner with others broadening our capacity to transform environmental attitudes and relations. 
6. We seek the greater good of finding how people can work with the gifts of creation; we live life as a mission, to heal and share with others the fullness of life. 
7. We accept the challenge of living sustainably in the world.

To read the whole document, click here.

Theme 1: Jesuit Institutions and Lifestyle

Jesuits are asked to be ecologically aware in the management of our institutions and houses, to be more accountable for our immediate environment.

We are working with Jesuit institutions and communities across the Conference to raise awareness of sustainable ecological management and maintenance practices such as campus environment management. We are also developing a collective and comprehensive manual on the environmental accountability of management and social participation, and encouraging dialogue and discussion of environmental responsibility issues in our communities and institutions.

Theme 2: Youth Education for Sustainability

We are incorporating care of the environment into our engagement with youth and are collaborating in and facilitating programmes for young people that will strengthen their capacity for observation, analysis and reflection on the subject of the environment.

Our programmes are in four areas:

• Scholastics & Lay Partners Formation
• Formative Courses on Cultural Engagement & Ecological Sustainability
• Apprenticeships
• Learning Sustainable Life (Integrated Schools Program)

Theme 3: Governance of Natural Resources

Globalization is putting greater pressure on our natural resources with the depletion of forests, growing scarcity of potable water, and the adverse effects of global warming and climate change.

Through our Governance of Natural Resources programmes, the Conference seeks to engage in the new structures of Jesuit governance in order to integrate advocacy, discernment, and planning in the broader management of natural resources. Our objectives are to develop

• Local adaptation and management 
strategies on disaster
• Mechanisms that deal with government, community, and industry
• Sustainable livelihood practices for resource management
• A venue for sharing and developing information, communication, training, and capacity building.

Reflections

As we work towards a tangible reconciliation with creation, we recognise the importance of the intangible, in the social reflection, which is borne out of often impromptu exchanges after events or over a meal.

The thoughts and reflections of others can have a profound impact on us, drawing us into a reflection of our own. There is a greater truth to be found in our experiences and in what is shared, and value in taking it deeper into our own lives and broader in relating with society.

In this section are some reflections that we hope will stir in readers a reflective response on how we can each act to preserve and sustain the world that God created and that we, by our actions, are destroying.

Flights for Forests

Aviation accounts for 4 to 9 per cent of the climate change impact of human activity.  With more and more people flying, air travel is set to become the world's largest single contributor to environmental damage and global warming.

Recognising that the Jesuit mission requires many of us to fly frequently as we work together for greater social justice in the world, the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific has created its own carbon offset scheme, Flights for Forests.

Flights for Forests is our way of recognising the impact of our travel and work on the environment in a way that helps the rural communities that are the most affected by global economic and climate changes.

We have asked all Jesuits and partners within the Conference to participate in this scheme by contributing US$5 for every flight taken. The contributions will go into a fund that will be used for forest renewal activities undertaken by youth groups in rural parts of Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

For more information and to participate, click here.

Communities we support with Flights for Forests

What You Can Do