Interfaith Communities Form Secretariat to Protect the Earth

Representatives from six religious communities in Indonesia signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a Charter for the Establishment of the Joint Secretariat for Interfaith Climate Action in Jakarta on Monday, 27 July 2026. The forum, initiated by the Amanah Daya Nusantara Foundation (Ayana), was formed to strengthen coordination and collective action in facing the climate crisis.

Ayana Executive Director Rizal Algamar stated that the climate issue needs to be communicated in a language close to people’s lives, as its impacts are felt through floods, changing seasons, declining harvests, rising living costs, and uncertain household incomes. “Our challenge is not just to deliver more information. Our challenge is to make climate action understood, trusted, owned, and led by the community,” Rizal said.

Rizal emphasised that caring for the earth is not an external agenda, but a teaching that has long lived within religious communities. The Joint Secretariat therefore does not take over the authority of religious organisations, but serves as a space to share knowledge, build partnerships, and drive collective action. “The community also needs to know what support they should receive. In essence, through the integration of theology, ecology, and economics, we hope communities will be increasingly able to communicate the climate actions they plan themselves within their own groups, so their voices are heard more clearly,” Rizal added.

The idea for the forum emerged from focus group discussions held by Ayana with six religious communities in March-April 2026. The series of discussions involved more than 200 participants and representatives from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI), the Indonesian Hindu Religious Council (PHDI), the Indonesian Buddhist Council (WALUBI), and the Supreme Council for Confucian Religion in Indonesia (MATAKIN).

The discussions identified various good practices, ranging from green houses of worship, waste management, and ecosystem restoration, to eco-theology education and green philanthropy. However, these initiatives remain scattered and not yet systematically connected. This finding aligns with the view of Abdullah Syamsul Arifin, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Da’wah Institute, who assessed that interfaith collaboration has a strong religious foundation. “We view this joint work across faiths and human communities to protect the earth, which God has bestowed for human benefit, as a calling of faith that we can contextualise in humanitarian life,” Abdullah said.