This year the Anglican Alliance is working closely with churches and agencies across the Pacific to call on the G20 to take action on climate change.
Following the G20 Civil Society (C20) event the Anglican group in the Pacific will take the lead on a campaign that will ask the 88 million Anglicans around the world to sign a ‘call to action’.
The C20 event will take place in Melbourne on 20-21 June 2014. Tagolyn Kabekabe, the Anglican Alliance’s Regional Facilitator for the Pacific, will join representatives from churches and agencies across the region and present their call for climate change to be included on the world leaders’ agenda.
The Anglican Alliance will also host a webinar on 24th June 2014 to join people together worldwide – particularly in Africa, Asia and the Pacific – to equip those at the grassroots with advocacy tools, which will help them speak up with the marginalised. More information on how you can take part in this event will be on our website soon.
The Anglican Alliance believes that all Christians and others around the world will want to call on their leaders to take the worsening effects of climate change seriously and realise its devastating impact on the poor.
Despite the agenda for the G20 meeting already looking full, it has this significant omission. Once again the leaders of the world’s top 20 richest nations could miss the chance to take climate change seriously and make decisions that will best serve the people they stand for.
The Anglican Alliance will use the gathering of civil society groups at the C20 to call these world leaders back to the agenda of the Millennium Development Goals. These goals are now being reviewed for the formation of a new agenda beyond 2015.
In the Solomon Islands the local community are feeling the effects of climate change first hand. Tagolyn Kabekabe said, “The fragile coast line is shrinking, the crops that once thrived are beginning to struggle and the vulnerable agricultural people of the Islands are having to adapt and mitigate against the changes all around them.”
Working with the Anglican Board of Mission and Anglican Overseas Aid, the Anglican Alliance have asked the bishops of Australia to lead a prophetic call back to hearing the voices of those who often go unheard.
These leaders of the Anglican Church in Australia will gather the signatures of Anglicans around the world and deliver their call to the G20 in November 2014.
With a united voice we can build momentum for individuals, churches and whole communities to engage with the post 2015 process.
Revd Andy Bowerman, Co-Director of the Anglican Alliance, said, “We believe that as Anglicans around the world dream, plan and pray together, they will be able not only to imagine but also help to create a different world – one where we take seriously our shared responsibility to care for the earth and for one another.”
The initiative will be launched in Melbourne after the C20 summit, and will be followed up with a series of activities for all to be involved in.
