CFORE Mission

The Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns within the Canadian context. It is supported by the Harvard Forum on Religion and Ecology, the largest international multireligious project of its kind.

The Forum recognizes that religions need to be in dialogue with other disciplines (e.g., science, ethics, economics, education, public policy, gender) in seeking comprehensive solutions to both global and local environmental problems.

The goals of the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology are to:

  1. promote research and teaching about religion and ecology in Canada;
  2. engage Canadians in dialogue about the role of religious values in shaping attitudes and behaviours towards the natural world;
  3. make a Canadian contribution to the Harvard Forum's overall goal of revisioning human-earth relationships;
  4. advocate for a sustainable ecological future and influence public policy on key issues.

CFORE aims to achieve its goals by hosting lecture series across Canada; consulting and participating in relevant educational forums; providing objective information to the Canadian public on religion and environmental issues; facilitating dialogue among academics, environment decision-makers and opinion leaders in Canada. To meet our goals we have identified four priorities for our work:

  1. Gain an objective understanding of current state of religion and ecology in Canada and make this knowledge more widely available so as to foster wider public awareness of this issue.
  2. Engage in educational outreach by organizing public dialogue forums across Canada
  3. Engage in academic research on religion and ecology to make a Canadian contribution to the field
  4. Identify issues where CFORE can partner with government and NGOs

CFORE Orientations

  1. A CFORE event is interdisciplinary and/or inter-religious, with activists and academics
  2. CFORE is explicitly transformative: to foster dialogue for transformation (ecological, socio-political, among activists and engaged academics)
  3. CFORE is specifically Canadian: regional representation, engage with particular projects in diverse bioregions, reflects Canadian culture(s), landscapes, and consensus building
  4. CFORE will host events across the country