MORE than 200 church leaders in the UK have urged the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to impose a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in his Spring Statement, which is due to be delivered on Wednesday. The money should be used to help people who are struggling to pay their food and heating bills as energy prices rise significantly, the letter says.Signatories to the letter, co-ordinated by Christian Aid, Operation Noah, Arocha, Tearfund, and CAFOD, and addressed to Mr Sunak and the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, include the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, more than 30 serving Anglican bishops, and the Primates of Scotland and Wales.The letter says: “We call on you to use the Spring Statement to provide financial and fiscal support for renewable energy and energy efficiency, especially solar and wind energy and the retrofitting of homes and other buildings across the UK. These measures would reduce heating bills, decrease carbon emissions and increase our energy security.”It continues: “The Spring Statement must include no support for new oil and gas developments. The International Energy Agency has stated that there can be no new fossil-fuel developments if we are to limit global heating to 1.5°C. New oil and gas production will not deliver lower energy bills for families facing fuel poverty and will have no impact on energy supply for years.“We urge you to increase support for vulnerable households across the UK facing a cost of living crisis as a result of increasing food and energy prices, through measures including a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.”It concludes: “Now is the time to end our dependence on fossil fuels and fund a fair and fast transition, which will secure our future economic prosperity and protect the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.”Among the Anglican diocesans to have signed the letter are the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, who is the C of E’s lead bishop on the environment; the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, who is a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Environment and Climate Change; and the Bishops of Southwark, Chelmsford, Worcester, and Sheffield.The interim CEO of Christian Aid, Patrick Watt, said on Monday: “The war in Ukraine has been a stark reminder that a world which relies on oil and gas is a world that is economically and politically combustible, as well as being environmentally disastrous. This is the moment we need to fundamentally rethink our energy system, and break the power of petro-autocrats for good by switching to clean, affordable, home-grown renewables as fast as we can.“If the UK is to be taken seriously as a global leader on climate change, it needs to take this opportunity to accelerate the roll out of renewables as well as widespread energy-efficiency measures, which have been overdue for many years.“A rush for fracking or more North Sea oil would undermine efforts to tackle climate change and endanger some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world, who are dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis and look to the UK to lead the way in decarbonisation, not pursuing more polluting fossil fuels.”
David Bland, Intergenerational Missioner in the Diocese of Hereford, began the project after seeing products being put straight into the bin without ever being sold. St Martin’s FoodShare now provides drop-offs three times a week for between 150-200 people.“It began with collecting and distributing a couple of trays of fresh eggs in the summer of 2020 and has rapidly grown into a food share three times a week,” David said. “The food share is slightly different to food banks because it is open to absolutely anyone whether they are facing a crisis or not. “We don't ask any questions about their circumstances and what we have to offer varies from week to week. “While foodbanks give people enough food to meet needs for a few days in a crisis, the food share is a top up to any food they purchase that helps out lots of people.“We see it as a way to bless our local community.”Local authorities and civic groups have celebrated David’s initiative and helped him purchase a food delivery van. As a pastor, David tries to deliver all the food himself and builds relationships with families.Food waste can be part of people’s individual carbon footprint and reducing it can be a helpful step towards our net zero carbon by 2030 target. The Church of England’s theme for Lent 2022 is Embracing Justice, with daily reflections linked to a weekly topic. The second week of Lent’s topic of “Building Communities of Justice” with a suggested action to “think about your daily choices” including food production and waste. The van was paid for by funding from Herefordshire Council.
ROWAN Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has written a thought-provoking article for the New Statesman. You can read it here…We throw around the term “culture wars” so freely that it has become hard to recognise and understand what a real and bloody war about culture looks like. Vladimir Putin sees himself as the protagonist in a battle for the survival of an integral Christian culture as surely as Islamic State casts itself as the defender of Islamic cultural purity. Of course there are profound operational, historical and political differences, and it would be foolish to ignore these, or to slip into the sort of panic that is prompted by Islamist extremism. But a realistic picture of what lies behind the appalling conflict in Ukraine has to reckon with the parallels – and has to recognise that secular geopolitical calculations and bargains may not give us the tools for making sense of what is going on.Putin’s close ally and supporter, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, made it clear in an extraordinary sermon delivered on 6 March, the day before Orthodox Lent began, that he regarded the Russian campaign as a war to defend Orthodox civilisation against Western corruption, of which gay pride marches were singled out as the leading symptom. This was no accident: despite high recorded levels of prejudice against LGBT+ people in Ukraine, recent Ukrainian policy has liberalised, and Kyiv has a high-profile activist community and annual parade.For the Patriarch, this is both a normalising of grossly sinful behaviour and a pollution of Russian Christian identity, since Kyiv is where Russian Christianity has its origins. About three-quarters of Ukraine’s population identify as Orthodox, and it has a high level of church attendance, but its Orthodoxy coexists with the expressions of a very different set of cultural norms. It is difficult enough to cope with religious diversity: Russia’s recent history shows very low tolerance of non-Orthodox Christian (not to mention Jewish and Muslim) minorities. The prospects for minorities in Ukraine in the event of a Russian victory are not promising. But what is worse in the eyes of a certain type of Russian Orthodox is the toleration of ideological diversity in the public sphere.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”Amos 5:24Ill-treating workers is not just business. In God’s eyes it is sin.P&O has sacked 800 people in Dover, a town dependent on shipping. Dover is a major part of the Diocese of Canterbury which we serve as Bishops.The extraordinary move is at the command of DP World, the Dubai based and owned parent company, which made record profits last year. The move is cynically timed for a moment when world attention is on Ukraine. Done without warning or consultation it is inhumane, treats human beings as a commodity of no basic value or dignity and is completely unethical.We call on Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, to prevent P&O operating until proper consultation has been carried out. Consultation will have to be done with independent oversight as all confidence in P&O management is gone. We call on the UK Government to make urgent and forceful representations to the Government of Dubai, a historic and close ally of the UK.It is essential that if this move cannot be prevented legally that Dover receive extraordinary financial and development assistance.The Right Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of DoverThe Most Reverend & Right HonourableJustin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
