Since the Anglican Church of Canada has given up on the idea of saving people from roasting in hell, it has taken up the task of saving them from roasting on earth.

“Consumers in the Hands of an Angry Gaia” doesn’t have the same resonance or weight as the original but neither does the purveyor of the message, Robert Todd Townshend, the new bishop of the Diocese of Huron.

Townshend has declared, in a diarrhoetic flood of stale platitudes, that a “push for greater environmental action may mark his tenure”. It will probably be more of a stain than a mark.

From here:

Reverend Canon Robert Todd Townshend is hoping to bring an environmental focus and action on climate change to Anglican churches across its Southwestern Ontario diocese.

Townshend was ordained Bishop of the Huron Diocese on Saturday afternoon, drawing about 1,000 people to St. Paul’s Cathedral on Richmond Street in downntown London.

After the ordination, Townshend reflected on the global climate change crisis and how faith can serve as a call to action, he said.

“The environmental movement has revived the biblical idea of us as stewards of the Earth, which is in every major religion because God is the creator,” Townshend said.

“I consider it an emergency,” he said of climate change. “If we call something a crisis for too long it is not considered urgent, but this is the most urgent thing.”

The Huron Diocese has always shown the ability to adapt and change as times demand and the push for greater environmental action may mark his tenure, he added.

“It will take a big movement of people, of political will. It’s crucial.”

Townshend becomes the 14^th Bishop, succeeding Linda Nicholls, who was elected the head of the Anglican Church of Canada in July.