Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has taken a lot of flak recently, including in this space. So I want to take the opportunity applaud him for his courage in pulling together faith leaders from around the globe to take a stand on global warming. I am mindful there are many who are skeptical, or deny that there are human causes to global warming, and others who maintain the church has no business wading into this issue.
His headquarters at Lambeth Palace issued this statement this morning. Here are the first two paragraphs.
The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a meeting of faith leaders and faith-based and community organisations at Lambeth Palace to discuss the response of faith communities to the environmental crisis. With 40 days to go before the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit the participants have pledged to work together to raise awareness about the effects of ‘catastrophic climate change’ on the world’s poor and to take whatever action they can to "to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable practice." At the meeting a number of presentations highlighted the kind of action faith communities and faith-based organisations were already taking in the UK and with partners overseas.
In the first statement of its kind, signed by leaders from every faith community (including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha’i, Jain and Zoastrian) the signatories recognise "unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming" and that "Faith communities have a crucial role to play in pressing for changes in behaviour at every level of society and in every economic sector. We all have a responsibility to learn how to live and develop sustainably in a world of finite resources".
To read the full statement, please click HERE.
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