A truly remarkable man: FaithInvest pays an affectionate tribute to Prince Philip |
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Prince Philip inspired the largest civil society movement on the environment on the planet – that of the world's faith communities |
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Today FaithInvest pays tribute to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, who died yesterday at the age of 99. Not only was he a personal friend to FaithInvest CEO Martin Palmer, but one of his greatest achievements was to persuade the major faiths of the world to take the environmental crisis seriously. By inviting faith leaders and the major conservation organisations to a ground-breaking meeting in Assisi, Italy, in 1985 for the 25th anniversary of WWF (of which Prince Philip was then International President), he inspired the largest civil society movement on the environment on the planet – that of the world's faiths. |
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"His Royal Highness was the first world leader to understand that the religions of the world could be natural partners for the conservation movement,” said Martin. "Since then, all the major faiths have declared the environment to be a faith issue and now have programmes of practical action on the environment. Much of that would never have happened without the vison and the explicit support of Prince Philip." |
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To a very large extent, FaithInvest also owes its existence to Prince Philip. Not only did we grow out of ARC (which Prince Philip co-founded with Martin in 1995) but it was Prince Philip who suggested that faith assets (buildings, investments, purchasing power etc) could revolutionise practical action on the environment. This led to FaithInvest being founded in 2019 to help faiths invest in line with their values, for people and planet. |
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While we pay tribute to Prince Philip for his pivotal – and often unsung – role in inspiring faith action on the environment, for Martin his death is also a deeply personal loss. 'To me he's been the most wonderful friend – fiercely loyal, strongly critical when necessary, huge fun, humorous and wise,' he said. 'Prince Philip inspired a great deal of change in the world. I will miss him immensely. He has been a great mate.' |
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Video tributes to Prince Philip As well as outlining Prince Philip's four decades of involvement in faith action on the environment, we also invited a number of people from different faiths, who have seen Prince Philip's work at first hand, to record their own thoughts. You can see short video tributes from: - Martin Palmer, FaithInvest
- Dr Husna Ahmad, Global One
- Dr Xiaoxin He, ARC's former Cina advisor
- Gopal Patel, Bhumi Global
- Yasuhiko Saito, MOA Museum of Art, Japan
- Dr Rajwant Singh, EcoSikh
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