wfn.org | ACNS - Caring for Creation

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3048 - ACO - 1 July 2002

Caring for Creation

Anglican Communion plans Congress to promote its concern for global issues
and to consolidate its resources to help save the  people and the planet

18-22 August 2002

In order that a clear, Anglican voice can be heard at the UN World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002, representatives of the
Anglican Communion plan to convene in South Africa in the week prior to the
Summit. This will be a unique event, supported by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, to consider the Communion's responsibilities to the world's
population and the planet, and to produce a Statement to be presented to the
Summit by the Communion's UN Observer.

The Anglican Communion is remarkable - a body of 70 million people in 165
countries, both rich and poor, from north, south, east and west. Those who
will come to represent it in South Africa will come as people of faith and
hope, to share their experiences of earth stewardship in different regions
of the Church, and to organise themselves effectively across the Anglican
Communion. They will gather not only as Anglicans, but also as citizens of a
global community, needing to learn to live as one, not as many competing
communities and individuals.

Unjust, unsustainable strategies for economic development are the root cause
of our planetary environmental crisis. The impoverishment of the earth and
the impoverishment of people are not two separate tragedies of modern life,
but one, which must be overcome with spiritual vision and practical
strategies for a sustainable future based on human responsibilities and
rights. The vision, expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolutions, is
that the redemptive purpose of God in Jesus Christ extends to the whole
Creation. The purpose of the proposed event is to make a collective response
to the ongoing impoverishment of God's Creation, both people and ecosystems
and to articulate a unified voice, which will be carried across the
Communion and heard at the crucial United Nations' Summit.

The 1998 Lambeth Conference resolved to address environmental concerns. The
Congress in South Africa will review work undertaken so far, and look
forward to the Lambeth Conference of 2008 thus ensuring that the resolutions
of 1998 will not have been in vain.

The Congress will be considering Economic and Human Justice, Health, Energy,
Water, Food, Biodiversity, Habitats and Urbanisation. In addition, time will
be spent reviewing a variety of projects now underway throughout the
Communion, launching the Communion's world-wide environmental network and
looking at local environmental initiatives in the area around Hartebeespoort
where the event will be held.

For further information:

Revd Canon Jeff Golliher: +1 212 316 7573 or +1 212 716 6263
David Shreeve: +44 20 7591 3111 mobile +44 7831 387745
Claire Foster: +44 20 7898 1523 mobile +44 7973 842837

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