Greening the church: a reluctant sacrifice or a new lease of life?

On May 31st 2007, as thousands of Londoners poured out of Hatton Cross tube, a message arrived from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was addressed to Father Amatu, priest to the villages of Sipson and Harmondsworth, and to the five thousand people assembling outside to protest against the third runway.

The march, which was to wind round Heathrow's perimeter fence before arriving at the villages threatened by the expansion plans, was launched by Fr. Amatu with Rowan Williams' words:

'Concern for our environment is a clear imperative arising from the respect we owe to creation and to each other.

'It is about securing justice for each other and for the generations to come. So questions of airport expansion, like all developments that risk increasing the damage we do to our global environment - which still impact hardest on the poorest - cannot be considered uncritically, or to be in a morality-free zone.'

Forgive us our carbon sins

The message went unreported by the media, and seemed hardly noticed by the crowd. Yet the implications of the statement were, and remain, profound. The head of the Anglican church had to all intents and purposes labelled...

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