03.08.2022
Lambeth 2022 Day 8: Apathy vs Urgency – considering the havoc wreaked by climate change
The Lambeth Conference is currently taking place with Anglican bishops from throughout the Anglican Communion gathering in Canterbury. The once in a decade conference brings together bishops from across the globe for prayer and reflection, fellowship, and dialogue on church and world affairs. Archbishop Michael Jackson is attending and will report back to Dublin & Glendalough. Below is his report from Day 8 of Lambeth 2022.
During the Lambeth Conference there is a day on which bishops go to London. The full day was spent in Lambeth Palace and in its garden.
The Archbishop of Canterbury had set out five prayer stations and there were prayers written from around the Anglican Communion to stimulate individuals as they moved from station to station.
Lunch provided the opportunity to discuss the Lambeth Call on environment and sustainable development with nine other people on the table and to learn of the havoc wreaked already by climate change the world over. The tension between apathy in the northern and urgency in the southern parts of the Communion was palpable. It also provided the chance to write a prayer in the area of climate change on a paper leaf which would be hung on a tree and these prayers will make their way around the Anglican Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The day culminated in prayers for the launch of the Communion Forest with the planting symbolically of a tree in Lambeth Palace. The Prayers of Penitence began: Jesus our deliverer, we harm your good earth and take your freedom from others. Lord, have mercy. We returned to Canterbury partly by boat (as far as Greenwich) and then by coach.
