LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Your September 2021 joint statement with Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch included the prophetic passage:
“We stand before a harsh justice: biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change are the inevitable consequences of our actions, since we have greedily consumed more of the earth’s resources than the planet can endure. But we also face a profound injustice: the people bearing the most catastrophic consequences of these abuses are the poorest on the planet and have been the least responsible for causing them. We serve a God of justice, who delights in creation and creates every person in God’s image, but also hears the cry of people who are poor. Accordingly, there is an innate call within us to respond with anguish when we see such devastating injustice.”
As you prepare for next month’s General Synod, we urge you to consider the millions of people who live in the Niger Delta. Last year, these communities faced severe flooding resulting from climate change, heaping further misery on top of the decades of pollution, loss of livelihood and human rights abuses that they have suffered at the hands of Big Oil.
We warmly welcome the Church’s announcement that it will now divest from Shell and other oil companies because they are increasing oil and gas production at the expense of climate action. We commend the Church for standing on the side of the people by announcing its intention to disinvest from Shell plc and other oil and gas companies which are defying the Paris Agreement.