Oceania’s Anglican leaders in the region have committed themselves “to take concrete action, to be champions and advocates, and to support each other” in the fight against climate change and gender-based violence.
The primates and general secretaries of the Anglican Church in Australia, the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, the Anglican Church of Melanesia, and the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Polynesia made the commitments in a communiqué following their recent regional meeting in Fiji.
As part of its commitment to tackling climate change, the church leaders:
- Encourage investment into sustainable energy as a valid option for investment funds
- Encourage their various trust boards “to consider restructuring their investments to maximise returns from such innovative ideas
- Ask Anglican schools in the region’s four provinces to integrate “climate change topics into the current curricula.”
On gender-based violence they:
- Welcomed the work of The House of Sarah – an initiative of the Diocese of Polynesia, which works to end violence against women and children
- Encouraged and supported the zero tolerance for violence policy as promoted by the House of Sarah
- Encouraged all provinces to adopt and implement the Anglican Consultative Council’s (ACC) Safe Church Charter
- Committed themselves to review and respond to the guidelines coming from the International Safe Church Commission,
This is the second time in two years that the Anglican leaders in the Oceania region have met in this way.
They will meet again in Melanesia next year, and in Papua New Guinea in 2020.
They were joined at this year’s meeting by an Anglican Communion delegation led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Source
- anglicannews.org
- Image: anglicannews.org