Canadian Anglican and Catholic bishops battle over oil

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The development of the Athabasca oil sands has led to dueling pastoral letters from Northern Alberta’s Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops. Bishop Luc Bouchard of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Paul has called for a halt to mining, saying its development "constitutes a serious moral problem." However, Archbishop John Clarke of the Anglican Diocese of Athabasca has endorsed development, chastising those who were "vilifying one of the most exciting and challenging projects in Canadian history."

Spread across 54,000 sq miles of sparsely populated Northern Alberta, the Athabasca oil sands contain an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of heavy oil or bitumen, and are roughly equal to the world’s total proven reserves of conventional petroleum. Commercial extraction of oil from the tar sands began in 1967, but recent developments in oil extraction technology as well as the spike in world petroleum prices has led to considerable private and government investment in the region.

On Jan 25, Bishop Bourchard released a pastoral letter to his diocese urging a halt to exploration and surface mining. “The integrity of creation in the Athabasca oil sands is clearly being sacrificed for economic gain,” he argued.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources

10 Comments
Posted March 28, 2009 at 5:00 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. justice1 wrote:

Archbishop Clarke, the Metropolitan and Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land in the Anglican Church of Canada,

Just a slight correction, the current acting Metropolitan is Bishop Donald D. Phillips who is Bishop of Rupert’s Land.  Clarke has resigned some time back as Metropolitan.

March 28, 8:16 pm | [comment link]
2. AnglicanFirst wrote:

Done correctly, the environmental impact of extracting oil from the Athabasca oil sands is much much less of a problem than dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Massive extraction of oli from the oil sands may result in averting major warfare over the oil reserves of the unstable Middle East.

Bishop Bouchard should worry more about saving souls and less about meddling in affairs for which he has not been educated.

March 28, 8:35 pm | [comment link]
3. Paula Loughlin wrote:

Anglicanfirst- why do you assume the Bishop is not concerned with saving souls.  His opinion about the oil extraction has as much weight as any other person’s and should be judged on its merits not on whether he is a Bishop.  If his argument is groundless, and I suspect it likely is does not mean he does not attend to his pastoral duties.  But if indeed he has embraced a leftist social justice agenda as a substitute for the message of Salvation you are right to call him to task.

March 28, 11:47 pm | [comment link]
4. azusa wrote:

“His opinion about the oil extraction has as much weight as any other person’s ...”
And perhaps as little weight, too. Herein is the problem: ecclesiastics use their office to comment on scientific and economic questions. It’s just a variation on celeb culture.

March 29, 4:05 am | [comment link]
5. Toral1 wrote:

Toral’s Law: Anytime a clergyman expresses an opinion on political issues, you will have less respect for him after reading it.

March 29, 8:36 am | [comment link]
6. libraryjim wrote:

Very good Toral.  I have the same attitude about actors who speak out on political issues as if they had some ‘inside’ information that we lowly folk don’t possess, whereas they usually just speak from a knee-jerk reaction.

March 29, 1:33 pm | [comment link]
7. Chris Molter wrote:

#5, what issues AREN’T political?  I guess clergy ought not to speak out on abortion or stem cell research since those are political issues.. maybe government corruption should be a taboo subject.  What else?

March 29, 4:26 pm | [comment link]
8. Paula Loughlin wrote:

Azusa, exactly.  What the Bishop is offering is an opinion based on the information he has viewed.  In his opinion the environmental risk is too high.  Whether this view has merit must be judged based on all the information at hand.  Not just information that claims doom and gloom for the environment. 

I do not doubt some of his concerns have merit but when someone bandies a pseudo science such as global warming and cites “Silent Spring” as an authorative text on the environment red flags do go up.  And I conclude it is more about idealogy than about science.

March 29, 8:00 pm | [comment link]
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March 31, 1:30 am | [comment link]
10. libraryjim wrote:

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March 31, 11:38 am | [comment link]
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