Published on Saturday, 17 October 2009 19:00 | | 
I’ve been a practicing Buddhist for 18 years yet I’m always keen to visit a cathedral – as far as I’m concerned you can’t have too many bells, smells, soaring ceilings and heart-thumpingly good hymns. It’s been a good week for organised religion, what with St Thérèse of Lisieux’s relics being paraded around London to the joy of so many who turned out – perhaps like me longing for respite from endless broadband connection problems, and weary of reading about Simon Cowell’s ghastly 50th birthday party (can there really have been baby sharks swimming around in tanks in the unisex lavatories? I can hardly bear it). Consequently, I am bemused by secular commentators and aggressive atheists who pour scorn on the religious relic event and anyone who believes in God in general. Bah humbug! I wonder how they can bear their children believing in Father Christmas. My godson (age six) swears he has seen fairies. Who can prove he has or hasn’t? As Dr Daisaku Ikeda, president of SGI, the Buddhist lay organisation of which I am a member, explains: Operation Noah aims to unite people of all faiths who are keen to stem the tide of relentless consumerism which is destroying the planet and sapping our spirits, sanity and wallets. As his Grace pointed out: 'We cannot continue to grow indefinitely in economic terms without moving towards the death of what is most distinctively human. 'If I ask what’s the point of my undertaking a modest amount of recycling my rubbish, or scaling down my air travel, the answer is not that this will unquestionably save the world within six months, but in the first place that it’s a step towards liberation from a cycle of addiction that is keeping me, indeed most of us, in a dangerous state – dangerous, that is, to our human dignity and self-respect. 'If the effect of unchecked growth is to isolate us more and more from life – from the complex interrelations that make us what we are as part of the whole web of existence on the planet – then we cannot continue to grow indefinitely in economic terms without moving towards the death of what is most distinctively human.' Read more of the Archbishop's speech here
And so to Southwark Cathedral with 1000 others, including my pal, eco-coach Donnachadh McCarthy (bravely overcoming his aversion to organised religion, although as I pointed out to him I’m not sure if a disorganised religion would be any better) to listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury discuss Operation Noah, the Church of England’s environmental campaign, writes Julia Stephenson.
I enjoyed Dr Rowan William’s speech. He is slight of figure yet has a rich fruity baritone voice which soared around the ancient cathedral (there has been a religious dwelling here since 606 AD). Sadly there was a lack of bells and smells, which I can understand as many of those in attendance were not necessarily religious but none the less interested – as I was - to hear a spiritual approach to the challenges posed by climate change. Most environmental coverage focuses on a rational scientific description about what is going on, though a spiritual approach is equally valid.
'If we want our environment to improve we must address the spiritual void, for our outer environment is merely a reflection of what is going on inside ourselves. A barren, destructive mind produces a barren, devastated natural environment. The desertification of our planet is created by the desertification of the human spirit.'