Calls from Lambeth Conference
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Last week I wrote about the Lambeth Conference currently taking place in Canterbury UK. The gathered bishops will (among other things) be responding some ‘calls’ to action for the church. Given the record-breaking weather we’ve experienced this month as a direct result of climate change, I thought it would be good to read the Lambeth call on climate…
We call on the Instruments of Communion to:
• Support commitments to tackle urgently the triple environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
• Advocate with the international community to deliver, as a matter of justice, the required financial commitments for loss and damage due to climate change, and to speak and act prophetically within the Communion on the issue, to demonstrate solidarity.
We call on ourselves as bishops and the people of our provinces, dioceses and parishes to:
• Treasure God’s marvellous creation, recognising the profound interdependence of all life on earth and repenting of actions and theologies of domination, which have caused great harm to the earth and injustices to its people.
• Recognise the triple environmental crisis as a crisis of cultural and spiritual values and build on the reach and influence of the Church to challenge ourselves and humanity to transform our mindset away from exploitation of the natural world to one of relationship and stewardship, as embodied by the wisdom of the Christian tradition and by Indigenous peoples.
• Equip communities to build resilience to help them withstand and recover from disasters, and promote the prophetic voice of young people and the key role of women as earth protectors, recognising that climate change impacts unequally on women and future generations.
• Join in the Communion Forest initiative, to protect and restore forests and other ecosystems across our planet and commit to promoting tree planting at the time of confirmation, and other key life and faith moments, as a symbol of spiritual growth.
• Ensure we use and invest our assets ethically to be good news for our planet and people and, as a matter of urgency, remove our funds from any new fossil fuel exploration, and seek to invest in renewable energy sources.
We call on world leaders to:
• Enact bold and urgent policy changes, including:
achieving net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
fulfilling and substantially increasing their commitments to climate finance, including for loss and damage due to climate change.
halting new gas and oil exploration.
protecting and restoring biodiversity and tackling pollution.
• Challenge wealthier nations and those with greatest responsibility for climate change to take the lead on climate action and just financing for other countries to reduce emissions.
• Support international cooperation and ambitious targets to transition to clean energy and to sustainable land use practices and food systems.
• Acknowledge that the scale and urgency of the climate emergency is such that politics must give way to action based on science and rooted in a moral call to recognise our interdependence with each other and the natural world.
• Recognise the wisdom within faith communities about the value and care of creation and the role that the faithful, and their faith leaders, can bring in influencing change in communities.
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