In February this year Alistair Macrae, President Elect of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), called for 'real action' to address the ecological crisis. He decried the 'disjuncture between public policy and rhetoric' that is so evident in the Federal Government's response to climate change. He now faces the same disjuncture within the UCA, as do other church leaders in their churches.
Since its inception in 1977 the UCA has a proud history of leading Australia's largest churches in calling for a range of actions to address social and ecological justice. Numerous UCA proclamations have rightly called for government action to address a range of ecological concerns. But only recently has the church begun to take seriously its own obligations to act accordingly.
Much the same can be said of the Catholic and Anglican Churches in Australia, which are relatively recent converts to religious environmentalism. The Catholic Church has had more to say on ecological concerns. It has formed Catholic Earthcare Australia as its ecological justice body. But the focus of the Catholic Church remains strongly on education, primarily within its schools. Its organisations are not obliged to comply with the Church's international or national statements on ecological responsibility.
Arms of the Catholic Church have proposed highly controversial land developments that entail clearing bushland, sometimes including threatened species and ecological communities. They justify them on the basis that the profits from such works will produce social gains. A recent example is an urban subdivision proposed by the Church on land it owns near Bendigo, Victoria.
The strong rhetoric of the Catholic Church on Creation-care remains largely an optional extra for its organisations, and economic and institutional gains still take precedence over ecological protection in the vast majority of situations. In some dioceses a distinct greening of policy and praxis is evident. In others the almighty dollar and the interests of the Church still take absolute priority over ecological values, even in the face of parishioners' opposition.
Much the same is true in Australian Anglicanism, though it has had far less to say on environmental issues. Overall, it is the least progressive and the least active of the three churches on ecological issues. It has no equivalent of Catholic Earthcare, nor the eco-justice aspects of UnitingJustice Australia. At the national level, the Anglican Church struggles to move beyond symbolic policy-making and calls for government action.
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