Anglican bishops call for serious action on climate change

Anglican bishops call for serious, concerted efforts to grapple with climate change.


Anglican bishops in New Zealand and Fiji have added their voices to
scientists’ pleas for serious moves to be made to tackle the threat of
climate change.

The bishops have issued a statement endorsing last week’s Wellington
conference on climate change, saying that the phenomenon is “a real and
present danger to the future of this planet.”

“Our country,” the bishops say, “needs to be managed and cared for as a
part of God’s creation. Ethics and the environment are closely linked.”

The Anglican bishops say the urgency of confronting the crisis requires
“governments, local governments, businesses and faith communities to
work together…”

One of the bishops who signed the statement, The Rt Rev David Moxon,
Bishop of Waikato, acknowledges that some people may question whether
Christian leaders should involve themselves with such issues.

But the obligation for Christians is clear and inescapable: “God’s
world,” he says, “needs God’s people to act for the redeeming of God’s
creation.”

The Anglican Church’s Social Justice Commissioner, The Rev Dr Anthony
Dancer, agrees:

“As we prepare to celebrate Easter, Christians recall that through Christ the whole of creation is reconciled or restored to God, and that this places a moral or ethical imperative upon us. "

“To continue to live in a relationship to creation which is distorted,
to subject ourselves to all manner of structures and systems which
cause us to utilize the planet in a way which destroys it, is
completely contrary to the Gospel.

“At the very least,” Dr Dancer says,

“we’re called to be good stewards of that which is given to us. Committing ourselves to carbon neutrality – managing and offsetting our carbon emissions – is an important first step for the Church to take.

“The reality of climate change is without dispute. It’s a reality that
we cannot afford to ignore.

“The time to act,” he says, “has been with us for some time. We need to
make brave decisions, bold decisions, and be willing to stick our necks
out.”