Climate Change Conference Draws Anglicans to Montreal
Episcopal News Service. December 12, 2005 [121205-1]
Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
Braving gusty winds, Anglicans joined tens of thousands of marchers in Montreal on December 3 to lead a worldwide protest against global warming -- demonstrations that coincided with the U.N. climate change conference, held November 28 to December 9, during which delegates discussed the future of the global fight against global warming.
Companion marches were held concurrently in 29 countries around the world.
The historic meeting was the first to be held in North America and the first since the Kyoto Protocol -- the international agreement requiring industrialized countries to reduce their global warming pollution -- went into effect in February. The United States has never ratified the Kyoto Protocol even though it produces almost 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases.
The march in Montreal was high-spirited, fervent, and family-friendly, drawing bundled-up parents pushing strollers as well as middle-aged and elderly activists and a large contingent of young adults. To the Christian ear, the march rang out in fresh ways some of the urgent messages of Advent: keep watch, time is short, prepare for judgment, change course. "The time is high," read one sign. "People in power: wake up!" read another.
Communities of faith were well represented at the march. Near the trio carrying a banner "Anglicans for Eco-Justice" walked a group with a banner for Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, led by Joy Kennedy, Ecological Justice program coordinator.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) sent a significant delegation to the conference, led by David Hallman, which included representatives not only from Canada and the U.S. but also from such countries as Fiji, Finland, Jamaica, Argentina, Russia and the Philippines.
Many of the WCC delegates took to the streets of Montreal, as did the delegation sent by U.S. Climate Action Network, which included representatives of Interfaith Power & Light, a national U.S. organization working to mobilize a religious response to global warming and to promote renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.
The march was preceded by a workshop on climate justice for faith communities that was held at the Anglican Church of Canada's Christ Church Cathedral.
Bringing greetings from Archbishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Anglican Province of the South Cone of South America, Argentine Ecumenical Patriarch Elias Crisostomo Abramides described the effects of climate change in Argentina, from melting and receding glaciers to eroding coastlines, as well as intensifying desertification and increasing outbreaks of tropical diseases such as malaria and Dengue fever in formerly temperate zones.
"We are dealing not only with a technological issue," he said, "but with a spiritual crisis that has taken us to the present situation."
Carlos Tamez, a Presbyterian pastor in Mexico, described Meso-America's vulnerability to increasingly severe and frequent hurricanes, to drought and desertification, to hunger and to forced migration -- a litany of perils that he attributed to climate change.
Joan Masterton, who spent 30 years working with Canada's meteorological service, presented some of the findings of the 2004 Arctic Climate Assessment Report, which include evidence that the Arctic is melting and that trans-Arctic shipping will likely be common within the next 50 to 100 years.
Because of increased exposure to storms, melting permafrost, and coastal erosion, 40 communities in the Arctic are already seeking to be re-located. The melting of the Arctic is not only creating a humanitarian crisis, it could also affect the global circulation of ocean currents, she observed. "The Arctic is the canary in the mine."
Although ecumenical and interfaith representation and action were evident throughout the conference, the voice of faith communities was perhaps most vividly expressed at the interfaith celebration "Un Cri de la Terre/Call of the Earth" held on Sunday, December 4, at St. Joseph's Oratory. The celebration drew almost 2,000 people and included dance, prayer, multi-media presentations, and the testimony of climate witnesses.
Its climactic moment was the invitation to the assembled congregation to sign "A Spiritual Declaration on Climate Change," which included a commitment "to help reduce the threat of climate change through actions in our own lives, pressure on governments and industries, and standing in solidarity with those most affected by climate change."