Urban October 2023

For a number of years now, UN-Habitat has been earmarking the month of October as “Urban October.” Our goal is to draw humanity’s attention our cities in order foster conversation, engagement, and movement toward a better urban future for all and everything. As we know more than half the world’s population live in our cites, and that percentage is expected to balloon to 70% by 2050. Such rapid urbanization comes with both opportunity and challenges.

If you are a person of faith… of any spiritual or religious tradition, I would challenge you to use the month of October to consider the riches of your spiritual tradition and where in your tradition can you see or imagine overlap with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How might you and other members of your local faith community experiment with more sustainable practices as a faithful expression of your spirituality.

As a person of faith myself; I sense that local churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, and other religious/spiritual communities in every neighborhood of every village, town, and city will play a vital role in building or rebuilding social cohesion as people continue relocating in our urban environments. What is more, local faith communities can uniquely mobilize their constituents to grassroots action through their deepest held beliefs, practices, sacred texts and values.

The following videos introduce some of those challenges and opportunities while also inviting you to engage unto a better urban future in your particular context.