Pray and act now for the environment, says Archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued an appeal to churches to pray and act for the environment ahead of key UN talks on climate change later this year.

Dr Rowan Williams is urging churches to use Environment Sunday on June 7 as an opportunity to pray for the planet and campaign for climate change to ensure that the best deal is reached by government leaders at the Copenhagen summit.

"Whilst it will be for governments meeting in Copenhagen in December to agree a successor to the Kyoto regime for global reductions in carbon emissions - and we all want those to be both ambitious and deliverable - we have a part to play,” he said.

“Governments need to know that people want them to be ambitious. They need a mandate.”

The Archbishop said that climate change was “probably” the most important issue the world is facing today and stressed that it was a matter of justice as well as caring for the environment.

He said: “As usual the poorest are likely to suffer the most though the richest have contributed most to pollute the atmosphere and accelerate global warming.

“So we can pray that a proper sense of responsibility (not least to the generations who will follow us) and of justice guides the hearts and the minds of the politicians who will meet in Copenhagen.”

The Archbishop urged Christians to get involved with events and campaigns taking place between now and December. He plans to be in Copenhagen to support last minute campaigns for a suitable deal to emerge from the talks.

“Please include in your prayers this Environment Sunday all whose efforts in the months to come could make a real difference for the sustainability of our planet and we who live in it - it is God's creation that we are striving to care for and as God's children that we pray and act,” he said.

World Environment Day marks the third anniversary of the Church of England’s environmental campaign Shrinking the Footprint. The anniversary will be marked with the unveiling of new resources to help churches and cathedrals reduce their energy footprint at an event at the Archbishop’s official residence, Lambeth Palace.
The next phase of the campaign focusing on water and biodiversity will also be unveiled.

The Church of England has strived in recent years to make its member churches more environmentally friendly. Today, nearly all dioceses have an environment officer to oversee the implementation and development of green policies to cut the carbon within every parish.

The Archbishop will be in St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese on Friday to officially launch its new environment policy. A range of green projects are already supported by local churches across the Suffolk area from a bicycle and rickshaw scheme to solar panels on a medieval church building.

The Bishop of London and Chair of Shrinking the Footprint, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres said: "Climate change is a global challenge, the impact of which is being felt first by some of the most vulnerable communities on our planet.

“Loving our neighbour in the 21st century demands that we should be involved in the effort to mitigate climate change and to help our neighbours to adapt.
“Environment Sunday is a time for us to reflect on the challenges ahead and to look forward to the Shrinking the Footprint event on the 11 June 2009.

“This will both provide an opportunity to deepen our own commitment and to engage with our politicians.”

At last week’s Pentecost Festival, scientist and Christian Sir John Houghton led calls to leaders to agree a “robust” deal in Copenhagen, warning that unless carbon emissions peaked by 2016, the damage caused by climate change would worsen and extreme weather would become more commonplace.


The Church of England has written a prayer for creation, included in its Common Worship: Seasons and Festivals of the Agricultural Year.

God said, ‘Let the waters be gathered together,
and let dry land appear.’
We thank you for the beauty of the earth,
for the diversity of land and sea,
for the resources of the earth.
Give us the will to cherish this planet
and to use its riches for the good and welfare of all.
God of life:
hear our prayer.