[New post] A Letter for Creation: from Polynesia

There are 85 million Anglicans worldwide in over 165 countries. We share a common home and a common commitment to care for our God given earth. Many of our sisters and brothers are already dramatically affected by climate change. Our futures are interconnected and we need each other.

Letters for Creation is a global conversation and renewal of commitment to love our neighbour through our actions on climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Archbishop of Canterbury invited senior clergy from across the Communion to share their thoughts on two questions:

What does the Care for God’s Creation mean in your Province?

What do you want to say to the Anglican Communion about the Care for our Common Home?

Here is the first of several extracts from the letters received:

‘I speak from the Diocese of Polynesia -a part of the Province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Within the boundaries of this Diocese, which includes large tracts of the Pacific Ocean, are clear testimonies to the reality of Climate Change which affects our global village. Island nations are being impacted by sea level rising due to Climate Change. Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands are threatened with non-existence as the sea level rises and land becomes uninhabitable. In Fiji, many villages are having to be relocated. In the Tongan island Pangaimotu, where as a boy I used to fish with my father, coconut palms stand stripped of fronds as the salt water encroaches and eats at root systems below the earth and cyclones ravage above…….

We speak of the faith and resilience of our people. However, we cannot promise that there will not be another Cyclone of equal or greater intensity affecting vulnerable communities and destroying homes and crops and sometimes lives. People in vulnerable communities need a voice.‘
Most Reverend Winston Halapua, Bishop of Polynesia and Primate and Archbishop of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

(Image: CIA World Factbook, public domain)