Church of England joins worldwide prayer for care of creation

Posted Aug 28, 2015

[Church of England] The Church of England’s lead Bishop for the environment, the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam is calling on congregations to join Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew, members of the global Anglican Church and Christians around the world to fast and pray for the care of creation on 1st September.

Bishop Nicholas said:

“It will do us all good to stop, fast, think and pray about the need to care for God’s good but fragile creation. We live at a time when human activity has caused a dramatic reduction in the earth’s biodiversity and when people are causing climate change through our profligate use of fossil fuels. A consensus has emerged about the need to move to a low carbon economy.

“Whatever the scientific, economic and political difficulties at root this is a spiritual problem. Prayer helps clarify what we want and strengthens our determination for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. On 1st September, join the prayer for the care of creation.”

The latest commitment by the CofE to transition to a low carbon future seeks to join with other denominations including the Orthodox Church, which has celebrated a Day of Prayer for the Environment on 1 September since 1989; and with the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis established a ‘World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation’ for the [Roman] Catholic Church which will be held annually on the same date.

Other members of the Anglican Church across the world have pledged their support for praying on the 1st September for climate justice, including the Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba.

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Comments (3)

  1. Michael McLane says:
    August 28, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    How presumptuous to believe that man is causing climate change through our “profligate use of fossil fuels”. There is no proof that man CAN affect climate change, for bad or good. The writer says “A consensus has emerged about the need to move to a low carbon economy.” Remember, there was a consensus, many years ago, that the earth was flat and also the sun was not the center of our solar system, rather it revolved around the earth. Ultimately these theories, when tested by the scientific method, were proven false. I are still waiting for experiments and results to prove or disprove that “man is causing global warming” . Until then, prayer is probably the most effective activity.

    1. William Hensel says:
      August 31, 2015 at 1:04 pm

      Mr. McLane, I’d agree that prayer is effective, whether before or after one’s threshold of scientific support has been achieved. Would you say that the case supporting human influence on global warming and climate change is at a level of scientific rigor similar to those supporting the flat earth and Ptolemaic cosmology theories? I think the evidence for human contribution to global warming and climate change is considerably stronger. In any case, while you wait for proof, I hope you’ll join me in prayer.

  2. Larry Hartman says:
    August 28, 2015 at 11:43 pm

    You are kidding of course.

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