More than 5,500 churches in the United Kingdom, including some prominent cathedrals, have converted to renewable power. The change is in response to a Church of England warning that climate change is “one of the great moral challenges of our time.”
Fifteen cathedrals, including those at Liverpool, St. Albans, Salisbury, and Southwark, have signed up for green electricity tariffs — purchasing programs for electrical power generated by wind farms, solar panels, or ocean waves. With an average annual church electricity bill of £1,000, the change to energy not generated by coal could save £5 million annually.
“Climate change is an enormous injustice and is hurting the poor first and worst,” said the Rt. Rev. Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury and lead bishop on the environment. “Switching to responsible sources of electricity may seem like a small thing on its own, but when joined together it can make a real difference.”
John Martin
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
