Pope Francis has sounded a clear warning about respect for the environment – if we destroy creation, then creation will destroy us. At his general audience on May 21, the Pope said polluting or destroying the environment amounts to telling God one doesn’t like his creation. Safeguarding creation is safeguarding a gift from God, he Read more
On Thursday last week, the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia unanimously passed a resolution to take all reasonable steps to divest shares in fossil fuel companies by mid-2016. Rod Oram, who moved the proposal, told synod that it “gives us the opportunity to offer leadership on, and to make a practical response Read more
A four-month drought in the central Tongan island group of Ha’apai is putting stress on drinking water supplies already diminished by saltwater intrusion. Some people – especially women and children mostly affected by the water shortage – from the more remote communities are needing to travel long distances to get water from churches and schools Read more
The Church of Melanesia’s Board of Mission is helping the people of the Malaita Province, in the Solomon Islands, to adapt to the rising sea level. In the Solomon Islands, the sea level rises of 8 millimetres per year, almost three times the global average, survival of communities on the low-lying atoll of Ontong Java Read more
This week – even as the world mourns the tragic loss of life in the unprecedented Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippine Islands – political leaders have converged on Warsaw, Poland, in yet another anticipated meeting on climate change. Concerned citizens throughout the world are hoping and praying for prompt and practical results. The conference follows Read more
Armistice Day 2013 was particularly sobering. The traditional memorials were kept, all with solemnity due in honouring memory of the dead, the witness of veterans and laments for current conflicts. Sadly, however, evidence would suggest that war will remain a means for political ambition and solution for impasse. Hope for better may be forlorn. Perhaps Read more
Evidence of a human factor in climate change is “irrefutable”, academics and church representatives agreed at a seminar co-sponsored by the commission of European Catholic bishops. The seminar heard several speakers call for aggressive efforts to cut down the use of fossil fuels, question the wisdom of “growth-based” economic systems, and call for substantial changes Read more
On 7 September, the Anglican Diocese of Auckland voted overwhelmingly to withdraw its investments from fossil fuel companies. Youth organisation, Generation Zero, endorsed the moral leadership on climate change taken by the Diocese. Generation Zero spokesperson, Kern Mangan-Walker, said “New Zealand has a strong history of taking moral leadership on the important issues of our Read more
The Anglican synod in Auckland is to stop investing in fossil fuel companies. The synod has decided to move away from fossil fuels because it encourages companies to find and exploit more oil, gas and coal. A spokesman said the church is concerned about the long term health of investments in the fossil fuel industry Read more
Father Martin is the parish priest on the Island of Abaiang, which is about two hours by boat from Tarawa, in Kiribati. Of the island’s population of about 5,000, some 4,000 are Catholics. Described as, “an intense man who wears thick black glasses,” he was until recently a climate-sceptic and feared that the message of activists Read more