From the Office of the Very Rev’d Dr Jeffrey Driver – Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide

Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver, has called on South Australia’s politicians to begin the conversation about Adelaide’s urban ecology.

Speaking at the SA Parliamentary Christian Fellowship Leaders of Christian Churches Dinner at Parliament House on Wednesday night, the Archbishop encouraged our political leaders to dream of a truly human city.

“Adelaide was founded on a bold experiment, a vision for a different sort of human city,” Archbishop Driver said. “So many people came here to a new colony because they had been captured by a dream; the dream of a different place where old inequalities and exclusions could be put aside and a new city of human opportunity could be crafted from dream to reality.”

While our awareness of our impact on the environment is important, perhaps the area most neglected in popular conversation is what might be called urban ecology.

“In a world where population is increasingly concentrating to our cities and the planet’s resources are more and more under pressure, urban ecology is one of our most pressing questions,” Archbishop Driver said.

“The riots that began in Tottenham and spread through a number of cities in the UK in August sent a shiver of concern through many cities around the globe and brought the question of life in our cities to our front pages.

“Concerned communities questioned how young people could feel so alienated that they could trash their own home in this way.

“Could this be our city, our suburbs?” Archbishop Driver asked. “At a time when human cities are under pressure and the issues of humanity and community press on us again do we have the courage, the daring, to dream once more the dream of a different human city?”

For further information please contact Katrina McLachlan on 0414972537.