CWN - Describing oceans as “one of the most precious gifts of our Creator,” the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has issued a statement for World Oceans Day.

“As the invariable model of industrial development and growth becomes the inevitable norm of global behavior, so too does the world’s dependency on fossil fuels drive society’s indifference toward creation care,” said Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honor among the Orthodox churches.

“While many of us in more affluent societies unfortunately cannot comprehend the consequences of climate change due to our comfortable, if not complacent and complicit circumstances, the more vulnerable among us who live on low-lying islands fully understand the dire situation as they witness the rising sea levels consume their home and threaten their survival,” he added. “Nonetheless, if we have created the dire conditions that we now face, we are equally accountable for and capable of remedying the health of our environment.”

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