"The destruction of the earth's environment is the human rights challenge of our time," Archbishop Desmund Tutu began his insistence for religious leaders to take a stand for God's creation. Equating inactivity on climate change to apartheid, Tutu is part of a collaborative effort with Anglican Bishops from around the world who have produced individual videos encouraging people to take a stand for our climate.
Episcopal Bishops need you to inspire your government to impose strict environmental regulations on irresponsible fossil fuel production. Moreover, they implore all of us to divest our personal holdings from fossil fuel companies, an act that will change the profit incentive by demanding legal accountability in the fossil fuel industry. "Move your money out of the problem and into the solution" Tutu adds, concluding with a single word from the South African dialect, Ubuntu, a statement he translates to mean a person's inability to achieve happiness while others suffer.
Anglican bishops call for climate justice action in new video series
Several bishops around the Anglican Communion have made short videos describing the impact and implications of climate change in their dioceses and calling for prayer and action.
The series of videos – produced by the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) – is intended as a resource for Anglicans and partners who are advocating for climate justice in the run-up to the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris on 30 November-11 December.
Typhoons in the Philippines
The Rt Revd Jonathan Casimina, Bishop of Davao in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, describes the brutal consequences of increasingly severe weather events, and in particular the typhoons that have caused death and destruction in his area. He concludes, “Climate justice is the people’s demand … If we partake of the eucharist, we must be willing to become eucharist for others, blessed, broken and given”.
