A Search for the Spiritual Roots of Sustainable Development …
321
other is significant, and individuals working in each of the two organisations met and
meet regularly in a variety of informal ways.
3
We may expect that the spiritual roots of SD are to be found among the churches. In
the community of churches, however, the understanding and awareness of sustainable
development began with development and followed its engagement in and concern
for the developing countries, then referred to as the third world. The churches had
since long been connected to development issues through its missionaries in poor
countries, where they often provided all healthcare and education that existed. In
the 1960s the accelerated pace of decolonisation and improved knowledge of the
situation in poor countries formed the background to a large increase in the focus on
justice and peace. These words became key concepts at the 4th World Council of
Churches (WCC) General Assembly 1968 in Uppsala, Sweden (Jonsson 2013).
The activities of WCC includes two main directions, a more traditional theological called Faith and Order and a second Life and Work more often referred to as
Church and Society. Both existed before the formation of WCC, and express the two
approaches to ecumenism: Dialogue and Action. The Church and Society branch has
its origins in the activities initiated by the Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom
in Uppsala, a forerunner in Ecumenism, already in the 1930s. It is in this branch that
the interest for peace and international justice took its beginning in the late 1960s.
The events of 1972, however, had an influence on the WCC. When a special
conference of WCC on Science and Technology for Human Development met in
Bucharest, Romania in 1974, the Report from the Stockholm Conference on the
global environment and the Limits to Growth publication of 1972 was one point on
the agenda. The final declaration from Bucharest included a call for a “sustainable
and just society”, said to be the first time that sustainability was applied to society
in relation to the environment.
4
The discussion on sustainable development became the main concern at the fifth
General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi, the following year
1975. The Programme for the Conference was a Just, Participatory and Sustainable
Society (JPSS). There was a general understanding that the resources of the world
needed to be distributed in a just way, but also that these resources were limited
and that humanity already balanced on the border to what the planet could provide
(Brander 2002). The representatives from the churches in the poor countries asked for
justice and development opportunities, while the rich countries were concerned with
controlling the environmental impact and ecological safety. The process was very
similar to what later was seen in the Brundtland Commission (Rydén and Sundström
2003).
From that time on Sustainability has been a topic in the WCC agenda. A WCC
meeting in 1976 agreed that the “Search for a Just, Participatory and Sustainable
Society” would be a major emphasis for the future work of the Council. This in turn
3 Bishop Emeritus Jonas Jonsson, Strängnäs, Sweden, personal information. Bishop Jonsson took
part in all main conferences and several special conferences of WCC.
4 World Conference on Science and Technology for Human Development in Bucharest. www.
environmentandsociety.org/tools/keywords/conference-technology-human-development.
321
other is significant, and individuals working in each of the two organisations met and
meet regularly in a variety of informal ways.
3
We may expect that the spiritual roots of SD are to be found among the churches. In
the community of churches, however, the understanding and awareness of sustainable
development began with development and followed its engagement in and concern
for the developing countries, then referred to as the third world. The churches had
since long been connected to development issues through its missionaries in poor
countries, where they often provided all healthcare and education that existed. In
the 1960s the accelerated pace of decolonisation and improved knowledge of the
situation in poor countries formed the background to a large increase in the focus on
justice and peace. These words became key concepts at the 4th World Council of
Churches (WCC) General Assembly 1968 in Uppsala, Sweden (Jonsson 2013).
The activities of WCC includes two main directions, a more traditional theological called Faith and Order and a second Life and Work more often referred to as
Church and Society. Both existed before the formation of WCC, and express the two
approaches to ecumenism: Dialogue and Action. The Church and Society branch has
its origins in the activities initiated by the Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom
in Uppsala, a forerunner in Ecumenism, already in the 1930s. It is in this branch that
the interest for peace and international justice took its beginning in the late 1960s.
The events of 1972, however, had an influence on the WCC. When a special
conference of WCC on Science and Technology for Human Development met in
Bucharest, Romania in 1974, the Report from the Stockholm Conference on the
global environment and the Limits to Growth publication of 1972 was one point on
the agenda. The final declaration from Bucharest included a call for a “sustainable
and just society”, said to be the first time that sustainability was applied to society
in relation to the environment.
4
The discussion on sustainable development became the main concern at the fifth
General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi, the following year
1975. The Programme for the Conference was a Just, Participatory and Sustainable
Society (JPSS). There was a general understanding that the resources of the world
needed to be distributed in a just way, but also that these resources were limited
and that humanity already balanced on the border to what the planet could provide
(Brander 2002). The representatives from the churches in the poor countries asked for
justice and development opportunities, while the rich countries were concerned with
controlling the environmental impact and ecological safety. The process was very
similar to what later was seen in the Brundtland Commission (Rydén and Sundström
2003).
From that time on Sustainability has been a topic in the WCC agenda. A WCC
meeting in 1976 agreed that the “Search for a Just, Participatory and Sustainable
Society” would be a major emphasis for the future work of the Council. This in turn
3 Bishop Emeritus Jonas Jonsson, Strängnäs, Sweden, personal information. Bishop Jonsson took
part in all main conferences and several special conferences of WCC.
4 World Conference on Science and Technology for Human Development in Bucharest. www.
environmentandsociety.org/tools/keywords/conference-technology-human-development.