Methodist President and Vice-President welcome Papal Encyclical

The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conferencehave welcomed the latest Papal encyclical, which focuses on the issue of climate change.The Revd Kenneth Howcroft and Gill Dascombe have issued thefollowing statement in response: 

"Yesterday we represented the Methodist Church at the ClimateChange lobby of Parliament. We were supported by the agency All WeCan (Methodist Relief and Development). Some 9,000 people of allfaiths and none took part. Among the events, we each took part inone of the two ecumenical Christian services held at St Margaret'sChurch, and at the Emmanuel Centre, which had packed congregations.People of all ages were there. It was particularly good to seepupils from the Methodist School at Kent College, Canterbury takingpart. They helped carry and hold a huge model of a broken heart. Atheme of the day was "Speak up - for the Love Of…".

"For the love of people, for the love of the planet, and (webelieve) for the love of God we need to change our behaviour asindividuals and as societies. Finding solutions will not be easy.But we cannot refuse to try. If we experience God's love, and startto love God in return, we shall have to start loving the otherthings that God loves. That includes the whole of the universe. AsSt Paul put it, the whole of creation is groaning at the momentwaiting for human beings to get back into a right relationship withGod and become God's fellow workers in creation andre-creation.

"We Methodists are committed to this. It is a vital outworkingof our worship, our discipleship and our mission. But we not alonein this. We are pleased to have signed the Lambeth Declaration ofFaith Leaders about this. We welcome the Pope's Encyclical aboutthese matters published today. We urge everyone to think, pray andact.