ABSTRACT
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has worked for unity among Christian Churches, affirmed religious tolerance through interfaith dialogue, and supported Orthodox countries emerging from religious oppression behind the Iron Curtain. For Bartholomew, then, "eco-justice" is not an exercise in public relations; nor is it merely a fashionable advocacy. As Bartholomew introduces the task of caring for creation, he also points to the further dimensions of the mission as caretakers of creation. In 2002, Bartholomew co-signed the "Venice Declaration" with Pope John Paul II, the first joint statement by the two world leaders. For Bartholomew, healing a broken environment is a matter of truthfulness to God, humanity, and the created order. Orthodox Christianity retains – in its theology, liturgy and spirituality – a profoundly sacred view of the natural environment, proposing a world richly imbued by God and proclaiming a God intimately involved with creation.
