Are windfarms God’s gift or the devil’s work? It’s a topic which is being ever more hotly debated within the Church of England.
Only last month, as revealed in The Daily Telegraph, parishioners in North Devon fought off an attempt by the Bishop of Exeter to erect 75-ft tall turbines on diocesan land next to three small villages. Now campaigners in the North are banding together to resist another suddenly announced scheme on land partly owned by the Diocese of Bradford. It’s no wonder, perhaps that these locals fear the Church is shifting from a spiritual to an environmental agenda. So will the CoE be re-branded EcO, preaching about saving the planet rather than souls? The campaigners’ worries are based on a passage of text from XY Associates, the consultants to the Bishop of Exeter’s scheme, describing the North Devon initiative as a “proof of concept” project.
