Churches should tell people in developing countries more about what they are doing to tackle climate change.
This plea was issued by Rachel Parry of the Anglican mission agency USPG following a consultation on climate change she attended in Hong Kong where she heard how some church communities were preparing to evacuate islands as sea levels rise.
“It was really powerful to hear Pacific islanders sharing their vivid stories of the climate change realities,” she said. “We, in the developed world, are doing the most damage to the environment, but we see the least impact in our daily lives, so it is easy for us to feel distanced from the problem.
“However, it is important that we tell our neighbours in the developing world about the initiatives being undertaken to try and mitigate some of the problem. This can serve to unite us even more strongly by demonstrating that this is a shared journey. No single community can go it alone.
“What dioceses and parishes in Britain and Ireland are doing to cut carbon footprints and reduce waste needs to be shared globally so that our partners can see we are concerned and making efforts to limit further damage.
“The environmental issues that some communities are facing, which threaten their existence, should deeply concern us as churches, far more than many of the intellectual and academic theological debates of the moment.”
The consultation was co-sponsored by Episcopal Relief and Development, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui. It was attended by around 30 church leaders from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Polynesia, Solomon Islands, Britain, USA and Vanuatu.
Delegates spoke about rising sea levels, storm surges, floods and destroyed crops on islands in the South Pacific that have forced whole communities to evacuate. In some areas, churches are preparing people to leave islands where they have lived for thousands of years because the islands will be submerged within 30 years or less.