10:40am Thursday 24th December 2009
By David Watkinson
CHRSTIANS in East Lancashire are being warned that they must do their bit to halt climate change, or 'sign a death warrant' for vulnerable people.
The area's leading Church of England figure the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, will sound the warning in his Christmas Day address at Blackburn Cathedral tomorrow.
Speaking in the aftermath of international climate change talks in Copenhagen and the devastating floods in Cumbria, the Bishop will call on Christians to ‘shrink their carbon footprint’.
The Bishop, who leads the Blackburn Diocese which covers the whole of East Lancashire, will say: “We must listen and respond to research about melting glaciers, expanding deserts and imperilled marine life, each of which radically affects the lives of our international neighbours.
“If we continue to ignore the warnings, and live selfishly outside the interdependence of God’s creation, we will be among those signing a death warrant for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. Homes, food, livelihoods and communities are all coming under threat as the weather changes.
“Responsibility for shrinking our carbon footprint is part of any Christian’s practical response to God’s creative love.”
Recent floods in Cumbria showed how lives can be devastated by the weather, the Bishop will say.
The Bishop will add: “Many of the victims in Cumbria were blessed by people willing to ‘dirty their hands’ on their behalf; in heroic acts of rescue, helping to clear out homes deluged and fouled by water, or taking refreshments round the streets 24 hours a day.
“Christian people with dirty hands - and other men and women of good will - were all sharing God’s love among the frightened and the overwhelmed; sent by God to be a neighbour, as God sent his son into our human condition, to live for us and to die for us.”
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