(26 Oct 09 - RV) An ecumenical symposium titled  "Religion, Science and Environment", concluded yesterday in New Orleans, Louisiana, where in 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and other religious leaders in the United States listened to discourses by a range of scholars, and discussed a common approach to ecological crises. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, DC, told us more about the significance of the conference.