Tony Carnie
SOUTH African “Green Bishop” Geoff Davies is not averse to making a spectacle of himself to get the attention of his congregation.
And to draw attention to the recent wave of universal environmental degradation, one of his favoured shock tactics is to upend a black plastic garbage bin in the middle of church.
He has done this inside St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town and at York Minster in the UK.
“We are polluting God’s world and poisoning it through climate change,” says the former Bishop of Umzimvubu in the Eastern Cape. Last week, Davies was named Environmentalist of the Year and received the Nick Steele Memorial Award for his efforts.
The award recognises Davies’s key role in establishing the SA Faith Communities Environmental Institute, a body which brings together a broad spectrum of religious and faith leaders – Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Baha’i and African traditionalists.
Davies founded the institute in 2005 in the belief that faith communities should unite on the basis of morals and ethics to ensure a more sustainable future for the Earth’s people and creatures.
Though he regards littering as a “contemporary form of blasphemy”, his rubbish bin stunts at St George’s in 2007 and at York Minster last year were intended to drive home broader environmental messages.
“We are filled with awe by this cathedral,” he told the congregation at York Minster. “Yet it is nothing compared to the beauty and wonder of God’s creation. Yet every day we release toxins into the atmosphere, pour poisons on to the land and pump pollution into our water and seas.”
Just as Britain had abolished the slave trade and South Africa had abolished apartheid, Davies said there was still time to move to a world of environmental justice and to tackle climate change.
“The question is whether we care enough for the future of our children to act decisively next month at the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen.”
Earlier this week, he spoke in Parliament and lambasted the cabinet’s latest declaration on climate change.
Davies said the recent Cabinet statement that “we are not ready to agree to any (emission reduction) targets” was tantamount to suggesting apartheid was wrong, but nothing would be done about abolishing it for another 30 years.
Before enrolling as a theology student at Cambridge in the 1960s, Davies studied history and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town and also joined the Argus Cadet School to train as a journalist.
After completing his studies, Davies headed to London on holiday, hoping to hit Fleet Street.
“But Fleet Street was not exactly waiting for me, so I went to Cambridge instead.”
After his ordination as an Anglican priest, he served the parish of South Kensington before being transferred to Botswana.
He was Bishop of Umzimvubu from 1987 to 2003, overseeing church activities in southern KZN and parts of the Eastern Cape and former Transkei.
He took early retirement in 2004 and moved to Kalk Bay in Cape Town.
Posted on November 23rd, 2009
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