Faithfully Caring for Gods Creation

IN THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF HURON Dear Friends of the EnviroAction Committee in the Diocese of Huron. We are calling you to live the 5th Mark of Mission To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth by supporting this call for petitioning and letter writing. Rev. Dr. Joanne Mercer, a Parish Priest in Twillingate, Newfoundland has identified a great concern about a freighter called the Manolis L that sunk in January 1985. In the past few months there has been growing concern about the oil leaking from the ship. The Anglican Church of Canadas Creation Matters Working Group received an email requesting help and support. The committee members agreed to act in their own Dioceses to offer support in the form of letter writing and petition signing. Here is the request from the Anglican Parish of Twillingate:
Hi I am the parish Priest in Twillingate Newfoundland and I am hoping that you might be able to provide me with some guidance and assistance. As you may be aware the Manolis L is a paper freighter that sunk near Change Islands in January 1985. In the last few months there has been growing concern about the oil leaking from the ship. The Coast Guard are taking measures but nothing seems to be working for long. There is great concern in my area about this issue and our Ministerial decided this week to work with those actively lobbying to have the oil removed from the ship. This seems to be the only viable long-term solution. In a public meeting help last week in Twillingate they spoke of the importance of getting behind this call quickly as we need Parliament to approve the funding ASAP. They do have a fund set aside for such clean-ups and we need to pressure the government and particularly the minister of environment to act quickly. Our fear is that if the funding is not approved soon the oil will not be able to be removed this year. This is a very serious matter. There is a website: www.newfoundlandoilspill.ca and there is also a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manolis-L-Oil-Spill-Cleanup-Effort We do have a petition and letters available and I have attached them for your use. I am wondering if there is any way to get the national church on board on this issue, to help in the lobbying and in the distribution of materials. Bishop David Torraville gave me support to send materials throughout our diocese but I think we will need more pressure. I believe that this is a very important matter and directly tied to our baptismal call to safeguard the integrity of God's creation and to the Marks of Mission. We believe that if this ship breaks apart and the some 600 tonnes of oil is spilled there

will be dire and far-reaching environmental consequences. Thank you for any help and support you may be able to provide. The Rev'd Dr. Joanne Mercer Anglican Parish of Twillingate.

Photo taken in the Change Islands Jan.22, 2014 Please take action! Sign a petition! Ask others in your parish and your neighborhood to sign petitions and write letters! Keep in mind that these petitions need to be shared, signed and mailed as quickly as possible. Bishop Robert Bennett and Bishop Terry Dance support this call for action in the Diocese of Huron. Please update EnviroAction at enviroactionhuron@gmail.com about your actions. We would like to measure our ability to respond in a situation like this and learn from this experience. We thank you for striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth! Canon Linda Nixon and Nancy Harvey, Co-Chairs on behalf of the EnviroAction Committee Diocese of Huron