In partnership with the Anglican Church of Canada's Creation Matters
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Desmond Tutu oversees First Climate Change Hearing
"All of us are seeking to be heard," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who oversaw the session. "People who are living on the frontline of climate change...are the ones that must be listened to more than anyone else. They are the voices that must be heard...heeded...and acted upon."
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Save Copenhagen: Real Deal Now! With only 2 days left, the crucial Copenhagen climate summit is failing
"World leaders have arrived and begun 60 hours of final negotiations. Each one will have to decide whether to step forward as heroes, or fail us all. But they will only act if we do.
Around the world a global movement has been building towards this moment. Now it's time for one last, massive push -- with a global public outcry for a real deal that will stop catastrophic climate change. In the next 48 hours we can build the largest petition in history. The names of petition signers are actually being read out inside the summit. Sign below, and tell everyone:
Petition to the 110 Presidents and Prime Ministers negotiating in Copenhagen:
We call on each one of you to make the concessions necessary to meet your historic responsibility in this crisis. Rich countries must offer fair funding, and all countries must set ambitious targets on emissions. Do not leave Copenhagen without a fair, ambitious and binding deal that keeps the world safe from catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees."
Save Copenhagen: Real Deal Now!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Anglican Bishop warns of implications concerning Government's decision to stop Kairos Funding
"Make no mistake. Lives will be seriously affected and possibly lost if some of the groups KAIROS supports do not receive its assistance," said The Right Reverend Philip Poole Bishop of York-Credit Valley of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Anglican Church of Canada commends the Diocese of Huron and the Enviroaction Committee’s leadership
November 19, 2009
Dear Bishop
This letter is to let you know about Greening Anglican Spaces, an important initiative of the Anglican Church of Canada, and to ask your help in forming a diocesan “green team” to provide local leadership and support for the initiative. If your diocese has already formed such a group, we commend you for your leadership and invite your participation and support.
Greening Anglican Spaces, a project of the Partners in Mission and Ecojustice Committee, developed to implement General Synod Resolution C001 adopted in 2007, calling upon all Anglican churches in every diocese to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A project team has been creating on-line tools – soon to be posted on the Anglican web page - to help parishes and dioceses increase the energy efficiency of our buildings, lessen greenhouse gases, save energy dollars, and together work towards a more sustainable future.
The Anglican Church of Canada is collaborating with the Greening Sacred Spaces project of Faith and the Common Good to develop educational materials and practical tools to help parishes in their greening efforts. A schedule of this joint project is attached.
Achieving increased energy efficiency in our buildings and changing our practices is a multi-year process. With your help, we believe we can support our parishes in serious greening efforts over the next three to five years, sending a clear signal to the wider community that Anglicans are serious about seeking a healthy, sustainable future. Specifically, we are asking you to name up to three people in your diocese who care about climate change, and who are interested in the practical aspects of reducing the church’s carbon footprint. Or to let us know what diocesan activities and teams you may already have in place. Kindly forward their name, e-mail address, telephone number and other contact information to mmaybee@national.anglican.ca. A reply by December 4, 2009 would be appreciated. One of the members of our project team will be in touch with you soon to follow up.
Greening Anglican Spaces is a practical response to the Fifth Mark of Mission, “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Last month, participants at an interfaith meeting hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury pledged to take whatever action they can “to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable practice”. Taking action continues to be urgent, whatever the results of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, and that is what this initiative proposes to do.
Thank you for your timely consideration of this request,
Sincerely,
Maylanne Maybee
Coordinator, Ecojustice Networks
The Anglican Church of Canada
mmaybee@national.anglican.ca
Ted Reeve
Faith & the Common Good Network
569 Spadina Ave
Toronto ON M5S 2J7
www.faith-commongood.net
Thursday, November 26, 2009
You'll be doin' all right, with your Advent of Blue, But I'll have a 'green', 'green' Advent
The site encourages you to take time out this Advent to slow down and consider your lifestyle with daily challenges and thoughts. The calendar contains a range of reflections, actions and video clips. Advent Resources from the Church of England.
"We hope for a world in which we have learned to live with the grain of things, to live patiently, to live respectfully, to live in a way that takes our environment seriously..." Dr. Rowan Williams
Ready, Steady Slow
Monday, November 23, 2009
Prayers of the People December 13, 2009
"We pray for our brothers and sisters around the world suffering the impact of climate injustice. We pray that the leaders of the nations may work together at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, so that a just, binding and science-based climate treaty may be achieved."
*Kairos says that “350 parts per million (ppm) is the upper limit for carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in our atmosphere. Until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 ppm of CO2, but now the concentration stands at 390 ppm. Unless we are able to rapidly reduce, we risk irreversible impacts on all of Creation”
Contact us: Diocese of Huron EnviroAction Committee
Email: enviroactionhuron@gmail.com
Thursday, November 19, 2009
KAIROS: Copenhagen 2009
If churches around the world ring their bells at 3:00 pm local time, we’ll have a 24 hour chain of bells!
KAIROS: Copenhagen 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Call to Anglicans in Canada for Vision and Action on the Climate Crisis
We, the undersigned, as Canadian Anglicans, call on our primate, bishops, clergy, and laity to address climate change as stewards of God’s good creation, required to act justly towards our fellow creatures and to Earth itself.
We are deeply concerned at:
* Increasingly urgent warnings on the need for substantial, swift greenhouse gas emission reductions, warnings issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1990 and widely ignored;
* Canada’s being the world’s worst per capita emitter, with increasing emissions flouting its Kyoto Protocol commitment to a 6% reduction from 1990 levels;
* The federal government’s failure to establish targets or a plan of emissions reductions, as the scientific consensus indicates, of 25-40% from 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050, in order to avoid an average global temperature increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius, after which runaway crises can be expected;
* The inadequacy of provincial targets and reduction plans -- despite responsible policies in some provinces -- given that the harmful impacts of global heating are occurring faster than anticipated, making deeper, faster reductions necessary;
* Promotion by Canadian tax subsidies of tar sands extraction, the major cause for rising emissions and of massive pollution and water depletion, water itself being a critical environmental issue;
* Failure to recognize that fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource fast being depleted;
* The lack of requirement in our Constitution and other statutes for responsible use and conservation of these valuable one-time riches for future generations;
* Failure to include military operations, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, in reduction planning;
* The substantial carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian agricultural practices and other industries;
* Failure to take adequate advantage of well developed knowledge and technology for alternative fuels and for more efficient planning of cities and transportation systems, industrial European countries being more advanced in curbing emissions and committing to serious further reductions;
* Climate-change induced harm to developing countries and the far north in Canada, and the devastation of First Nations’ lands by the tar sands extraction.
We call on Anglicans to work for solutions to the climate crisis. In our liturgy, we confess that “we have sinned against God by what we have done and by what we have left undone,” yet, with blind eye and hardened heart, we do not “love our neighbours as ourselves.” Climate change is the slavery issue of our day: we in the developed world are the oppressors in a system that victimizes the Earth, our neighbours in the global South, and future generations. We fail to act as partners in the Covenant with God to care for this planet, and to live out the transformative love of our resurrection hope.
It’s time for new vision and commitment to a new kind of life, to renewed care of the land on which we live as tenants, to deeper respect for all the creatures within the Covenant, for the mountains and hills that sing, the trees and rivers that clap their hands.
Time is urgent. At the December 2009 Copenhagen Convention on post-Kyoto reduction targets, we need Canada to be a voice for the serious cuts deemed necessary by the best science.
We call on the Anglican Church to join with environmental organizations and other faith communities in urging the Government of Canada to make the effective, timely commitments needed. We call on church leaders to take these concerns to all levels of government.
We ask Anglicans to support a national call for climate change action by signing the KyotoPlus petition. Sign it on line at http://www.kairoscanada.org/en/get-involved/campaign/kyotoplus-petition, and download it at http://www.kyotoplus.ca/en/index.html.
We call on all levels of the church to set an example by making cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in our own operations. We urge routine incorporation of the care of creation and the responsibility for environmental justice in prayers, readings, and sermons.
Who is my neighbour? The command to “love one another” embraces people far away and future generations. The command to stewardship embraces the whole Earth, our
island home, and all life dependent on it.
Phyllis Creighton, MA, adjunct faculty, Divinity, Trinity College; Honorary Canon
Joy Kogawa, CM, OBC, LLD (hon), DLitt (hon), DD (hon), author
Diane Marshall, MEd, RMFT, Director, Institute of Family Living, Toronto
Lynn McDonald, PhD, LID (hon), university professor emerita, University of Guelph
Fellow Anglicans! Sign this Manifesto electronically at
Or print it out, sign it indicating parish and diocese, and mail it to
PO Box 92513, 152 Carlton Street
Toronto ON, M5A 2K1.
We will report both printed and electronic support of the Manifesto to the Primate and Bishops. Pass the Manifesto on to other Anglicans.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fill the bus and ‘fill the hill’ on C-Day
Trent Durham Anglican youth are hoping to fill a bus on October 23rd so they can be on parliament hill for Climate Day on the 24th of October, 2009. They will be asking the Canadian government to take action for Climate change. Organizers are hoping to get 100,000 people there. Perhaps, it will be the biggest rally on parliament hill for climate change. Contact Christian Harvey at 705-768-6050 or Christian@bbharvey.com.
See here.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Building an Ethical Economy
Satellite site at All Saints' Anglican Church Windsor
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
WWW Links #1: Worship Resources
The Episcopal Ecological Network
Ecology Resources to Transform Faith Communities and Society
Greening of Worship: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Eco-Curriculum Review Project
Earth Ministry: an Interfaith religious response to global warming
Books
Gage, Susan and Peggy Wilmot (2004). Footprint Files. Ideas to Help Congregations Care for Creation and Reduce Their Footprint. Wood Lake Publishing Inc.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Photos for Enviroaction Blogsite
Photos can be sent to: enviroactionhuron@gmail.com.
Thanks,
John
Monday, October 5, 2009
Reducing Climate Change in the Third World
Climate change affects the Third World much greater than the First World. In September 2009 the Church of England created the Climate Justice Fund to help remedy this imbalance and reduce the negative impact of climate change where it is most needed. Churches can find out what they can do to help Third World parishes at the website http://www.climatejusticefund.org/. It will take you through the following steps. Firstly, a church calculates their carbon footprint; measuring the causes of the church’s greenhouse gas emissions. Then the amount of emissions is reasonably converted into a financial equivalent which is donated by means of the aid agency Tearfund. The money is said to go directly toward problems caused by climate change such as flooding. This can help a church use a carbon offset to reduce their Carbon Footprint at home while recognizing that climate change is a problem of global proportions.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Petition for Climate Change KYOTOplus petition
A petition asking that the Primate and Bishops support a national call for climate change is gaining steam. Phyllis Creighton, Joy Kogawa, Diane Marshall and Lynn McDonald, who are connected with the group Science for Peace and The Environmental Working Group—Diocese of Toronto have written and distributed the ‘Anglican manifesto on climate change’. The concern of the petition is to have our national leaders address “serious cuts deemed necessary by the best science” at the post-Kyoto Convention in December 2009 in Copenhagen. You can find and sign the manifesto at http://www.justearth.net/manifesto.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Bishop Bennett's statement concerning the EnviroAction Committee
I, Bishop Bennett, commend all those in the Diocese of Huron to the good work of the EnviroAction Committee.
(The Right Reverend Robert F. Bennett, Bishop of Huron)
The vitality of our Diocesan Family is seen in so many ways in the congregations and parishes of Huron. Our commitment to be good stewards of God’s creation has been claimed as a priority of ministry by the members of our diocesan EnviroAction Committee.
Care for the world in which we live was named as a key component of our ministry and Christian witness during the discussions at the Lambeth Conference in 2008. Stewardship of creation is one of the Millennium Development Goals. The EnviroAction Committee’s goal is to nurture and facilitate the turning of those global goals into practical challenges that can be addressed and resolved right here in Huron in our own parishes, homes and communities.
The Diocesan Council endorsed the ‘Green Awards’ in 2008. The “Green Awards’ have been developed by the EnviroAction Committee and will provide all in the Diocese of Huron with a means by which we can make decisions regarding the care of our buildings and review the way in which we order the life of congregations, so that our carbon footprint will be reduced.
As you read through the different sections of the EnviroAction portion of our Diocesan website we hope that you will discover ideas which have the potential to re-shape your sensitivity to the world in which you live. The EnviroAction Committee invites you to share your ideas with the committee at enviroactionhuron@gmail.com. We welcome your prayerful support and your active participation in EnviroAction initiatives such as the ‘Green Awards’ and the ‘EnviroChallenge Day’ as we share in this ministry of Environmental Stewardship.
The Rev. Linda Nixon and Nancy Harvey, Co-Chairs EnviroAction Committee
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Blog site is approved!
Thank you.
John
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mission Statement of the EnviroAction Committee
Calling the people of the Diocese of Huron to be good stewards of God’s Created order; The EnviroAction committee will be the Diocesan focus:
1. Reviewing our current environmental practices
2. Affirming our environmental responsibility in ministry
3. Educate about environmental issues
4. Proposing policy options that enable and encourage us to be faithful in caring for God’s creation.
Five Marks of Mission | |
The Five Marks of Mission are a work in progress that continues to be reviewed and adapted, while offering the Anglican Communion a practical checklist for mission work and a comprehensive view of Christ’s Mission. They are: |