For immediate release February 7, 2009

New Zealand Archbishop says Anglicans should offer “moral leadership” in the fight against global warming

Archbishop David Moxon has told an international press conference that the Anglican Communion should offer “moral leadership” in the campaign against global warming.

Archbishop Moxon is in Alexandria, Egypt, for a meeting of the Anglican Primates, or leaders of the 34 Anglican provinces that make up the worldwide Anglican Communion.

He had earlier been asked to lead a special session of that gathering to be devoted to the impact of global warming on the environment.

Archbishop Moxon later told a press conference that the gathered Anglican leaders were agreed that the Anglican Communion should offer “moral leadership” in the campaign against climate change.

This, he suggested, was significantly a matter of setting an example.

He spoke of the need for Anglicans to embrace lifestyle changes, and to cutback unnecessary or environmentally hazardous modes of travel. He also spoke of the need for Anglican leaders to encourage what he called “eco-friendly congregations and environmental projects.”

Archbishop Moxon told the media that the Primates believed that the church has a “Biblical, theological and practical role to play in every community” on the issue.

Anglicans needed to do what they could to prevent carbon emissions, and the “overcooking or choking of the planet.”

Such efforts, he said, should be seen as “an act of participation in God’s creation and redemption.”

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