To the House of Bishops, Anglican Church of Canada
December 12, 2007
pfeheley@national.anglican.ca

Dear Rt Rev Bishops

Last year (December 15) we wrote you urging you to take up the challenge of climate change. We offered to meet with you and give any assistance to start the process of rethinking that we believe is needed.

Last year you declined the offer, on grounds of busyness, general synod, a visiting archbishop of Canterbury (himself a leader on the subject). The urgency of the climate crisis has since not diminished but rather worsened. We repeat our offer to help to start the process. We urge the church to establish its own climate change action plan, to do what it can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, at the national, diocesan and parish levels, and to stimulate thinking about lifestyle changes in the light of the challenge and the biblical command to care for God's creation.

As Canadians we have a long way to go. Churches can give input on values, for the vigorous solutions needed to address the climate crisis, according to the best science available, hardly stop at technological fixes.

On the positive side one bishop wrote one provincial premier (a good letter) on the subject of serious reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Several dioceses have started committees, put material on websites and produced brochures on the subject (or at least on environmental deterioration). The Eco-Justice committee included climate change in its last publication (on page 12). That publication has some good  material for liturgies, but concentrated rather on the traditional social justice issues, like housing, globalization and trade. Yet climate change is arguably our greatest social justice challenge, especially from an international and intergenerational perspective. Work our church does on international development is undone by the harm we do (corporately, individually, all of us in our various capacities) by our excessive use of carbon fuels. The church's failure to give leadership on the stewardship of non-renewable resources is deeply troubling. As we carry on business-as-usual we contribute to the problem, not the solution.

The reply to our letter of last year seemed to be under the impression that we were writing from another country. We are Canadian Anglicans, resident in Toronto. We have some ideas of how to start this process of reflection and remedy. We believe the challenge needs your participation, not simply the occasional diocesan committee. Can we meet and talk?

Sincerely yours

 

Phyllis Creighton, Joy Kogawa, Diane Marshall and Lynn McDonald