Today (6th September) marks the beginning of Creationtide where we turn our focus to the climate crisis and explore the theological and scientific basis of creation care and action on climate. This morning, we heard from Dr Ian Todd, who in addition to being a trainee Reader, has spent his career lecturing in biology and conservation. You may recognise his name from the last blog post, where Ian spoke about the importance of biodiversity when heading up the new wildflower meadow.
As stewards of God’s creation we have a responsibility to look for warning signs or damage to the earth and everything that lives on it, including people. And when we hear and see those warning signals we are called to respond— whether it is ecological damage, inequality in availability of resources, oppression of groups of people or unsustainable ways of living. Despite the terrible cost to human life and health, the Covid-19 lockdown led to reduced pollution across the world and an opportunity to see how things can be different. This can be an inspiration to us all to recognise our Christian role in not just living in harmony with God’s world but striving for national and global changes in the way governments and businesses impact on our planet.
In the online service, we also watched a video from A Rocha, which is a organisation dedicated to the protection and restoration of the natural world, committed to mobilising Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. If you would like to find out more about what they do, visit their website, where you can also find resources about being an eco-church and "Wild Christians".
St Barnabas is currently working towards its Bronze award as an Eco-Church, where we have begun to think about our energy use, the way we use our grounds and what we choose to preach regarding the environment. This week, a group met at the grounds to begin a bit of a tidy up of the grounds, including tidying up and filling our compost bins! It was a great time of community, worshipping God and caring for creation in a hands on way!
As we move forward we pray that we continue to hold God's creation in the forefront of our minds in all of our day-to-day lives. We are really exciting to see how the grounds will transform over time but this really is the very start of our journey!
If you are reading this, and you would like to commit yourself to this part of the Christian journey, you may like to say these words that we said at the end of our service this morning.
As followers of Jesus, we seek to honour God and love our neighbour by committing to pray faithfully and act boldly to care for the Climate, Amen