The Anglican Diocese of the Amazon has sought to live the marks of mission as a whole and has a big focus on the fifth mark of the mission that calls us to safeguard God’s creation and to fight to save human life.
The example set by the Anglican Communion’s engagement in environmental justice movements, such as the Renew our World campaign and Season of Creation, and also the desire to live the Marks of Mission more deeply and to be God’s Church for God’s World in the Amazon, led us to understand that we are called to pray and act for behaviour change, awareness and social and environmental justice, and we are also challenged to raise awareness of climate change, prophetically denouncing everything that destroys life on our planet.
Living with the peoples of the Amazon region has awakened us to our relationship with the earth, with the creation of God. We human beings have the essential responsibility to take care of creation, and this is also a commitment to the Gospel of Christ.
To be God’s Church for the God’s world in this region, one must be committed to the “Culture of Life”, to the rescue of dignity, justice, peace and socio-environmental preservation – fruits of the experience of love according to Christ’s commandment!
For us, taking care of the socio-environmental issues of the Amazon region is to be Church; to take care of the environment is to be Church; to take care of the people who live in this environment is how we live our faith.
We learn from the indigenous peoples in the Amazon that the land is sacred, that territories are sacred and are like extensions of their bodies. They are part of their sacredness, in the relationship with the peoples of the forest (peoples originating in the Amazon) we take contact with an ecological theology and come to understand that we are part of the whole, part of the web that is the creation of God and we come to understand that when creation is violated, degraded, our bodies are also violated, degraded and we understand raising our voice against climate injustices, against socio-environmental injustices, is not a purely ideological action, but an Evangelical action, that is, it is part of our discipleship and the experience of faith.
Our projects developed in the area of environmental justice strongly impact our way of being a Church, impact our way of worship and our spirituality. Also, the elements of local culture impact our way of worship, the songs, the instruments the objects are part of our sacredness.