Nature is resilient, yet delicate. We are already witnessing the consequences of our refusal to protect and preserve it (Gn 2.15). Now, in this moment, we have an opportunity to repent, to tum around in resolve, to head in the opposite direction. We must pursue generosity and fairness in the ways that we live, work and use money, instead of selfish gain

“A Joint Message for the Protection of Creation” by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Francis, and the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, released 7 September

Nature is our home, we are part of Nature, and She continually furnishes us with services — climate regulation, decomposition of waste, nitrogen fixation, air and water purification, soil regeneration, pollination, and so on — without which we would not exist

Sir Partha Dasgupta, economist, Christian Aid annual lecture, St Martin-in-the-Fields, 6 September

Somewhere in the last 300 or 400 years in the popular saying of the Lord’s Prayer, it somehow changed from “in earth” to “on earth”. This tiny change encompasses for me all that is wrong in our relationship with the earth of which we are a part. We used to understand that we live in it, we are part of it, we depend on it and that, as good stewards of the earth, the earth depends on us. Then, somehow, we decided that we did not live in it any more but on it; it was ours and we could do with it as we wanted

Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, speaking during a House of Lords debate on the Environment Bill, 7 September

It is not an adequate response for the Church to say, “Repent, go away, and sin no more,” or “We prefer you to go and live in secrecy or shame”

Gregory Cameron, Bishop of St Asaph, speaking in a debate on same-sex blessings, during the Church in Wales Governing Body, 6 September

We disagree how we read scripture. I stand here not as a bigot, but as someone who has struggled to a point where I believe this Bill would be crossing a boundary. My position has been maligned. A pastoral response is not to offer kindness for kindness’s sake

Richard Wood, clergy Governing Body member, during the same debate as above

Only God will take me out of Brasilia

Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, at a rally of supporters, in the face of opposition from the judiciary, 7 September

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