24th October 2025
Shaping a better world with Wild Card
This morning Wild Card handed both a petition with 122,000 signatures and an open letter signed by nearly 50 high profile individuals and organisations, including, Green Party leader Zack Polanski, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, former chair of the IPBES and IPCC Sir Robert T Watson, Green Christian and Christian Climate Action, to Sarah Mullally the soon to be arch bishop of Canterbury . The petition took the form of a beautiful crafted paper model of the Ark, covered all the names, and which was carried aloft (by dignitaries that included Chris Packham and Helen Burnett who both made eloquent addresses) accompanied by an eagle, a beaver and a salmon, a whole host of flags and banners and well wishers wearing an assortment of decorative hats and tokens of the natural world.
The petition and the letter asked the Church Commissioners undertake to rewild 30% of the land that they currently steward on behalf of the Church corporate. (1) This land totals 108,000 acres of land (the equivalent of 60,000 football pitches) and that is separate from land owned by individual parishes and dioceses (which interestingly is an almost equivalent amount).
The United Kingdom is one of the most nature depleted nations in the world. Recognising the extent of this and its adverse impact on our wellbeing, the UK government has joined with others in 2022 in signing up to the international Global Biodiversity Framework (2), undertaking to restore and protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. Currently only 2.83% (3) of land in England meets the desired nature-rich standard so there is clearly a lot of ground yet to be covered in the next four years! The area of land under the control of the Church Commissioners makes the Church part of the 1% that owns 50% of the land in the UK.
Wild Card is raising awareness about the necessity of rewilding – the natural environment is our life-supply system providing us with fertile soils, pollinators, fresh air, clean water, carbon capture and flood protection, as well as enabling food production and medicines, mental wellbeing and recreation – and calling on major landowners to step up to the mark and and rewild – restore and protect for nature – 30% of their land.
Surely the Church as a Christian organisation, with the God-given commands to cherish and protect the Earth and to love our neighbours, should be at the forefront of this campaign and leading by example?
Sadly no one at St Paul’s Cathedral would receive the Ark nor allow its entry into that place of worship. Instead a phalanx of security personal ensured that no one trespassed onto the steps of that august building.
(1) https://wildcard.land/campaigns/rewild-the-church
(3) https://www.wcl.org.uk/30by30-press-release-2025.asp
PS You can still add your name to the petition – https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/help-save-nature-by-rewilding-the-church-s-massive-landholdings
PPS you can read Helen’s beautiful address here –
In the story of Noah and his Ark you may notice all sorts of things but the bit that always bugs me is that Noah’s wife doesn’t get a name……………
So, let’s start this morning by celebrating loud and clear what a delight it is to be addressing Sarah Mullaly first ever woman to hold the post of the Archbishop of Canterbury
At the helm as the Archbishop of Canterbury , she will become our very own 21st century Noah and inherits a precious ship that must not sink.
We pray that she will not be overwhelmed by the floods that threaten us, but that instead, she will read the signs of the times and have the courage to save the biodiversity of this land – that she will do all she can to advocate for wilding church land and to act as a bulwark against the biodiversity and nature crisis of our times
Bishop Sarah’s first words to a waiting world were so encouraging –
‘ In the apparent chaos which surrounds us, in the midst of such profound global uncertainty, the possibility of healing lies in acts of kindness and love.’
Our hope this morning is that it will be kindness and love for our ‘other than human’ kin that will move Bishop Sarah to do all that she can to steer and shepherd us through these times,
to lead the church with the urgency of Noah building the ark,
and to act now to use church land for healing, regeneration and restoration.
How amazing would it be if the Church of England, through pressure on the Church Commissioners, could be the dove that bears the olive branch of hope, setting a tide change for other major land holders to wild their land.
Bishop Sarah also said ……..
‘In parishes across this nation, I see faithful clergy and congregations worshipping God and loving their neighbours.’
In my tiny little parish, we have a church yard where we are trying, through careful land management to bring back species of flora and fauna lost to the Surrey Hills.
We have created a wildlife corridor the length of the boundary wall between us and the neighbouring agricultural land.
In our small way we are seeking to restore, and so, I call upon on our new Archbishop to join us on our journey of messy churchyards and No Mow Mays to let nature do it’s healing even when it doesn’t look tidy??? Even when it doesn’t fit the financial portfolio to do so.
Imagine 200/108,000 acres of wonderful untidiness and what that could do – could church, like the ark be a beacon of hope to a world in crisis ?
Today we implore Bishop Sarah to include in her new vocation, the vanishing wildlife of our precious land,
And I say this directly to her, “as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury unlike Noah’s wife you will have a powerful voice with which to advocate for all species and you do not even need to build an Ark !”
In this role you have the power to guide and shepherd the Church Commissioners and the broader Church to recognise that ecological collapse and climate crisis are intertwined issues that need to be addressed with the urgency of Noah.
In the words of the recent vision statement from Christian Climate Action we appeal for the Church of England, to find its courage, cease doing harm and return to its roots, to Stop Crucifying Creation and to be a place of resurrection.
The church commissioners could cease doing harm by simply dedicating one third of their land to biodiversity restoration , yes, this would take courage but it would represent a return to the roots of a radical living out of the faith that honours all things and sees all creation as sacred. Today, as a lover of God’s creation and member of her clergy I want to thank Bishop Sarah for her words in Canterbury cathedral:
‘Hope’, she said, ‘is made of the infinite love of God, who breathed life into creation and said it was good’
That goodness now lies precariously close to collapse , can she give us back that hope and be the Noah we need to steer our ark through the biodiversity crisis towards that moment when we can, once again, see in the distance the dove bearing an olive branch?
Helen Burnett
The Green Tau 