Doctor Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral in south-east England, that humanity needed to protect the world created by God.

People should treat each other and nature with "reverence", the Church of England leader said.

"More and more (is) clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and just how our greed distorts it.

"When we threaten the balance of things, we don't just put our material survival at risk; more profoundly we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk -- the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us.

The archbishop also stressed the need to respect others and praised "brave and loving people" in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

"The delight and reverence we should have towards the things of creation is intensified many times where human relationships are concerned," he said.

"And if peace is to be more than a pause in open conflict, it must be grounded in this passionate amazed reverence for others.

"In today's Bethlehem, still ravaged by fear and violence, we can still meet the God who has made human tears his own and still works ceaselessly for his purpose of peace and rejoicing, through the witness of brave and loving people on both sides of the dividing wall."

Meanwhile the Archbishop of York, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, said injustices throughout the world were examples of God being "violated and blasphemed".

The outspoken Ugandan-born Doctor John Sentamu urged support for those who were struggling across the world.

"In the killing, raping and looting fields of Darfur; in the broken nation and a broken people of Zimbabwe who have been force-fed with injustice and can swallow no more; for the unreconciled children of Abraham in the Middle East -- the Palestinians without a viable state they can call home and Israelis hungry for peace and security; for the refugees, the homeless and people caught up in human trafficking ... God is being violated and blasphemed," he said.

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