Progress on climate change needs to be backed as a gospel imperative, says Operation Noah board member David Atkinson.
A year ago, the UN talks in Copenhagen were a disastrous failure. The task for world leaders last December at Cancun was to take forward (i) what the world needs to do when the Kyoto agreement to limit carbon emissions comes to an end in 2012; (ii) what the rich developed countries need to contribute in finance and technology to the developing world, to help them reduce their carbon emissions without diminishing their hopes for economic growth. There seems to be just a glimmer of hope that there is some progress.
All this matters more than ever now because most climate scientists agree that if the rise in average temperature of the planet is not held down to 2 degrees (or less), then unpredictable and very damaging climate change is very likely. The countries most hurt are those least able to mitigate its effects, the poorest and most disadvantaged countries in the world who have contributed the least to creating the problem. The rich countries who have caused most of the trouble through industrial pollution, deforestation and intensive agriculture, are going to be the least affected.
This should matter especially for Christians because we believe that this is God’s world, that he loves the world, and in Jesus Christ has (as St Paul put it) “reconciled all things to himself”. Care for God’s creation is an essential part of the Church’s mission. It is not just a useful hobby for those who like that sort of thing. Salvation is not just about saving our souls, but about the hope of God’s coming kingdom - on earth as it is in heaven. We should not be polluting God’s earth.
To put it another way, climate change is forcing on us questions which go to the heart of our faith: our relationship to the planet and to each other, our use of technology for good or ill, our fears and vulnerabilities about human destiny in the face of an uncertain future, our values and priorities in economics and politics, our capacity for selfishness and for altruism, the call to live justly. These are moral and spiritual, and therefore theological questions - they are touched at every point by the Christian gospel.
One theological theme which holds much of this together is that of covenant: God’s promised faithfulness to the creation, which should evoke a faithful response from us. Behind the various covenants made between God and people lies what Robert Murray called The Cosmic Covenant: God’s commitment to the whole of creation. The great opening chapter to Genesis celebrates that commitment, and is expressed as six days leading to a seventh. In this sense covenant points to the Sabbath, and in the scriptures Sabbath is worked out in terms of our calling to find a rhythm for our lives and jubilee for the earth, which enables us to live more simply, and with less dependence on technological fix. Another strong covenant word is justice – the social and political expression of love for our neighbours - especially neighbours across the world, and neighbours (our grandchildren) who do not yet have a voice. How do we hold together the just requirements for sustainable development with the needs for urgent responses to the threat of climate change? Covenant also holds out hope. The story of God’s covenant with his people leads us to the Upper Room, and the ‘new covenant’ in Christ - the one through whom “God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven.” God’s faithfulness through Christ, his death and resurrection, and the vision of a coming new heaven and new earth in which justice dwells and in which God will be ‘all and in all’, give us grounds for holding fast to God in the face of human uncertainties.
There are, of course, political, technological and economic decisions which governments have to make. We in the West are being called to a radical re-evaluation of the market economy, of the idols of ‘consumer choice’, and a rediscovery of locally sustainable communities. But this is about more than politics and finance. Jonathan Porritt in Capitalism as if the World Matters refers briefly to “spiritual capital” alongside natural, human, social and financial. It is the spiritual dimensions to this issue which the Church needs to be demonstrating much more effectively.
I have recently joined the Board of Operation Noah, a Christian organisation providing focus, inspiration and leadership in response to the threat of catastrophic climate change. What has impressed me is both ON’s commitment to holding science and theology together, and also its call for cutting-edge radical discipleship, motivated by hope in God. Their Mission Statement calls us to transform our lifestyles into simpler, enriching and sustainable ways of living. One recent initiative illustrating this has been their “Carbon Exodus” campaign towards a UK reduction of carbon emissions towards a zero-carbon economy by 2030. The campaign includes for example, at local church level, providing resources for an ‘oil fast’ - a day of worship and reflection about individual choices for lower energy living, and our use of travel, food, water and so on. Some people believe that their small contributions can makes little difference. If everyone switched off just one stand-by machine each night, we would save the energy provided by one power station. Average UK emissions of CO2 per person are under half that of the USA, nearly twice that of Sweden, and about 90 times that of Uganda.
One of the five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion is “ to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. As part of Christian mission, one of ON’s priorities for the next few years is, alongside others, to provide theological and liturgical resources for clergy and church leaders to inspire them, in preaching and teaching, to make care for God’s creation a matter not only of humanitarian urgency, but of Gospel imperative.
David Atkinson is an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Southwark. His book Renewing the Face of the Earth: theological and pastoral responses to climate change was published by Canterbury Press in 2009.
This article first appeared in Church Times on 25th February 2011.
