“Why would the Church be interested in what we're doing in the first place?” Once again the coal seam gas industry fails to understand what a social license entails.
ABC News 11 April 2013:
The State Council of the Uniting Church will vote to exclude investments in coal seam gas and coal mining at this weekend's Synod in Sydney.
Four-hundred delegates are being asked to consider a motion that places corporations engaged in the extraction of fossil fuels on the Church's Excluded Stock List.
It also calls for an immediate freeze on new investments, and the sale within 12 months of existing holdings, in CSG and mining companies.
Uniting Church Minister in the North West Plains, the Reverend Robert Buchan, says increasing numbers of his parishioners are raising concerns about CSG expansion.
"There is an application that is on the table at the NSW and ACT Synod where there will be a vote taken about the Uniting Church's attitude towards coal seam gas and coal mining, particularly in areas that are ecologically sensitive, sensitive in terms of food production and particularly where there are significant aquifers," he said.
Moree-based Reverend Buchan says congregations are calling on the Uniting Church to engage in the debate.
"A mining executive said, 'Why would the Church be interested in what we're doing in the first place?”……
UPDATE
Channel 9 News 16 April 2013:
In a meeting held in Sydney on Tuesday, 400 synod council members from the Uniting Church in NSW and the ACT voted unanimously to divest from companies engaged in fossil fuel extraction and place them on its `excluded stock list'. The synod said investments in mining companies contradicted its ethical investment principles, which require it to shun companies involved in `substantially changing the environment'.
UPDATE
Channel 9 News 16 April 2013:
In a meeting held in Sydney on Tuesday, 400 synod council members from the Uniting Church in NSW and the ACT voted unanimously to divest from companies engaged in fossil fuel extraction and place them on its `excluded stock list'. The synod said investments in mining companies contradicted its ethical investment principles, which require it to shun companies involved in `substantially changing the environment'.
3 comments:
That's brilliant. A conscious decision made within your community in mind. The church more than most know money isn't everything a community needs. Well done Uniting Church.
Well done.At last an organisation with courage to do the right thing.we are fighting CSG and coal mining in the Southern Highlands and something like this gives me great hope as sometimes we feel that we have to fight not only the greed of big business but lazy and cowardly Governments and apathetic citizens.You give me great hope.If we all did what you have done big unethical businesses would have to behave.Simple!!
So if they are no longer investing in companies "with the potential to alter the environment" then I assume that the church is divesting itself from every company that uses fossil fuels or electricity then????
I prefer it when the church sticks to religion and stays out of science and politics please.
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