Monday, October 12, 2009

Anglican Communion Office: "Our ancestors have always taught us that the earth is our mother..."

From the Anglican Communion Office. No, really. Ancestors? Mother Earth? Advil? From the ACO:
The Anglican Communion occupies a unique position globally in terms of affecting and suffering from climate change:
From all points of the globe we point to the reality of climate change and to the very serious effect it is already having upon our people; from severe weather events, to prolonged droughts, major floods, loss of habitat and changing seasons.

Our position is faith-based:

Our faith and our ancestors have always taught us that the earth is our mother and deserves respect; we know that this respect has not been given. We know that like a mother the earth will continue to give its all to us. However, we also know that we are now demanding more than it is able to provide. Science confirms what we already know, our human footprint is changing the face of the earth and because we come from the earth, it is changing us too.

Our statement is framed in the context of hope channeled through a positive vision.

We have always known that “without a vision, the people perish”. The Copenhagen Conference can either produce a bland, minimalist set of non enforceable targets or it can sketch a vision to inspire the world and its peoples. Leaders lead, please . . . do not let us down.

A PDF of the Statement is available here.

Looks like it's time for this:



LATER: "Our ancestors always taught us ..." I've been thinking about that phrase today. "Our ancestors always taught us ..." and I got to thinking about what my "ancestors always taught us," and it's not very pretty.

15 comments:

RMBruton said...

Could that be an image of the ABC at the next Lambeth?

Rolin said...

One free pass to the Laffin' Place for 1662 BCP.

Br_er Rabbit.

Wilf said...

Goodness thank YOU for that video !

I've heard that piece a million times but have never SEEN the video, and the vid sort of ... well ... elaborates the meaning of the piece very nicely. Music also very well-done.

Seeing that video just makes me want to walk right into an Episcopal church ... too bad I'm so far away from them all.

Pageantmaster said...

Whatever are they smoking?

tjmcmahon said...

Pageantmaster,
Those of us a few years older than you could offer an educated guess on what they were smoking.

That would explain the funny looking thurible in the office, the one with the pipe sticking out that has water in it.

This does read like a press release written from that quiet, centered place in the middle of a labyrinth. Gaia must be pleased.

Anam Cara said...

Gosh, I love the dresses the Fifth Dimension gals are wearing. Why can't we have fashions like that now?

Anonymous said...

Genesis 1:26 Then God said,(O) "Let us make man[h] in our image,(P) after our likeness. And(Q) let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Not exactly "Gaia is my mother," is it? We are charged with stewardship of the earth, not worship of it. And shouldn't we remember that while the sea and the earth were commanded to bring forth living things, God made man (and woman) directly? We weren't "brought forth" from the earth.

Oscewicee

Don said...

From this post:

"In his Christmas sermon, delivered at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams finally completed his journey from old-world Christianity to trendy New Ageism. His sermon was indistinguishable from those delivered (not just at Christmas but for life) by the heads of Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. Williams did not speak about Christian morality; in fact, he didn’t utter the m-word at all. He said little about men’s responsibility to love one another and God, the two Commandments Jesus Christ said we should live by. Instead he talked about our role as janitors on planet Earth, who must stop plundering the ‘warehouse of natural resources’ and ensure that we clean up after ourselves…"

And that was written by an atheist.

Martial Artist said...

1662 BCP,

I rather doubt that that would be a prospective picture of the current occupant of the seat of Augustine of Canterbury. The hair is (pardon the exaggeration, however slight) much too well groomed.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

Pageantmaster said...

It does bear an uncommon resemblance. Would that make the person with him Gregory Cameron?

BillB said...

Oscewicee,

I care to differ in part with you:

Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Anonymous said...

Heh, heh, I've seen that couple in People's Park in Berkeley.

Anonymous said...

BillB, you're not really disagreeing, you're making my point. Other creatures were brought forth from the earth - God breathed the breath of life into man. Man (and woman) are not mere dust, earth created.
Oscewicee

Andy said...

What was that old saw about not trusting anyone over 30?

Rolin said...

Andy...

Everyone who ever used that old saw is now over 30 (and most of them are over 50).

Br_er Rabbit