When the moral argument went mainstream

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 15 December 2009

Slowly, carefully, the Reverend Tofiga Falani, from the tiny nation of Tuvalu, walked down the long aisle of the Copenhagen Cathedral, holding in his arms a piece of bleached dead coral from the Pacific Ocean. With him came the Reverend Suzanne Matale from Zambia clutching dried-up maize from Africa and Bishop Sofie Petersen, from Greenland carrying stones uncovered in the melting glaciers of her ice-capped home.

As a thousand worshippers sang All Creatures of Our God and King, the three religious leaders from far-flung corners of the world joined scores of bishops and priests who gathered in Copenhagen's most famous church on Sunday to pray for the planet and for the politicians who are disputing its fate.