Adventist Youth Join Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, Muslims, and Jews in Ecumenical Environmentalism

Rio Cuarto, located in the province of Cordova, Argentina, hosted its first interfaith environmental awareness event on November 11, 2022. The ecumenical encounter was sponsored by the government’s Undersecretary of Education and Worship, the Undersecretary of Human Rights, and members of the Rio Cuarto Interreligious Youth Network. Ecumenism brought together youth from various religions, including “Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, Indigenous, Adventist, Southern Church, and Lutheran.” [1]

Worship Coordinator Luciano Esnaola explained that the work being done by the interfaith youth is “a transversal (unifying) criterion for all the church groups.” He went on to say that “the concept of creating and caring for the environment is something that brings us together and brings together communities of faith.” [1]

The Interreligious Youth Network of Rio Cuarto, of which Seventh-day Adventists are a part, is dedicated to promoting “exchange, training, dialogue, and cooperation between various youths of faith, mobilizing towards the building of peace, the transformation of conflicts, and sustainable environmental development in the city and in their own communities of faith. It brings together young leaders in charge of the youth areas of each of the communities of faith.” [1]

Whose voice are they listening to? This is precisely what Pope Francis instructs the churches to do in his climate encyclical, Laudato Si’. The Pope is redefining the church’s mission and urging all religions to work together to address the climate crisis:

“Political institutions and various other social groups are also entrusted with helping to raise people’s awareness. So too is the Church. All Christian communities have an important role to play in ecological education” (Laudato Si’ #214).

Seventh-day Adventists must rediscover the divine purpose for which God raised us up as a movement. We must remember that the Three Angels’ Message is God’s final warning and the means by which we can share salvation in these final days. The Adventist movement is not a social organization that seeks to correct all of society’s ills. We have been given a divine mandate to take the everlasting gospel of Revelation 14 to the world. What do we have to offer people if the Three Angels’ Messages are not the most solemn work ever entrusted to mortal man? We simply become one of many churches around the world, repeating the same message.

What is the meaning of evangelism if we no longer emphasize the distinctive features of our faith? Once we accept the world’s standard as to what the important work is, we then become a declining church with a declining message. We become a people who have lost sight of their true mission.

Today, we live in an era of confusion, and as God’s Remnant people, we must stay focused on the spiritual and prophetic imperatives that God has given us. The church has a mission, and we must be clear about what that mission should be:

“In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention” (Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 19).

Sources

[1] https://www.lv16.com.ar/sg/nota/168821/se-desarrollo-el-primer-encuentro-de-conciencia-ambiental