By Canon Ken Gray, Anglican Communion Environmental Network Secretary

The ecological vulnerability of indigenous communities, the rapid expansion of deforestation, and the energy of youth for the environment have all emerged as key issues as the Anglican Communion Environmental Network’s Eco-Bishops’ initiative gains momentum.

The Network’s chair, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, has invited some 20 bishops to participate in the initiative based on their engagement with ecological mission and ministry and in view of special challenges faced in their home province or diocese.

The bishops have begun to communicate by email and using an on-line meeting facility prior to gathering near Cape Town, South Africa in February 2015. It is intended that the initiative will continue beyond the Cape Town conference as the bishops share their experience with the entire Communion, along with a strategic plan to meet the challenges ahead.

“The Eco-Bishops initiative involves more than simply sharing information”, said Canon Ken Gray, Secretary to the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN). “The bishops will share local challenges. They will also derive strength from each other since they face tremendous hurdles in drawing national and international attention to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation experienced in their areas, and in bringing pressure to bear on forces which in some instances can only be described as evil.

“Sea-level communities have been displaced because of rising or polluted waters. The presence of litter or lack of access to clean drinking water affects sub-Saharan Africa in particular. The expansion of hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, in many countries contaminates water, creates huge carbon emissions and negatively affects the health of neighbours.”

Bishops in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines and the Anglican Church of Canada have highlighted the intersection of the environment and Indigenous rights as a place of particular struggle, with resource extraction and deforestation adding to poverty and stress, and disrupting communities that have lived in tune with the forest and its ways for generations. One diocese in the Philippines has seen forest cover reduced from 50 per cent in 1960 to 15 per cent today.

According to Canon Gray, it is clear from the bishops’ conversations so far that climate change is having a disproportionate effect on the poor, but that wealthier parts of the world are by no means exempt. “Even in New York, the home of Wall Street, rapidly changing weather patterns, including the experience of hurricanes, have opened peoples’ eyes in a new way.”

One bright glimmer of hope comes from the common experience among the bishops that Anglican youth are particularly ready to speak out and act for climate justice – a readiness which the bishops hope will be met with affirmation and resources around the Communion.

Canon Gray expressed his gratitude for Archbishop Makgoba’s support and convening of the Eco Bishops’ initiative. “Archbishop Makgoba has been chair of ACEN since 2011 and has reflected that ‘the road is made by walking’. His South African heritage and experience continue to inspire us.

“We cannot avoid the challenge of living with and responding to climate change”, Canon Gray concluded. “The matter is urgent and omnipresent. The very future of the church and all of creation is at stake. This is no time for the faint of heart. We will need strength for the journey, and our strength is in Christ.”

NOTES

Anglican Communion Environmental Network: http://acen.anglicancommunion.org/index.cfm

ACEN on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GreenAnglicans

Also on Twitter and LinkedIn

More information from Canon Ken Gray grayintheforest@shaw.ca and the Revd Dr Rachel Mash rmash@mweb.co.za

Bishops participating in the Eco-Bishops initiative to date: