Last year’s BBC series ‘Earth: the Power of the Planet’ was a stunning reminder for me not only of the force of nature, but of the might of God the Creator. Here in dramatic images was a tapestry of the vastly complex processes which create and sustain the life of the world. We are perhaps used to seeing this in wildlife but Dr. Iain Stewart from Plymouth University set it out vividly through the elements of rock, fire, ice and water themselves.
The hidden message in such drama is perhaps this: that we do much better to cooperate and work with natural forces than against them. How often do we get ourselves into trouble as a human species because we struggle to contain or control nature. In theological terms is this not too close to playing at God?
Thankfully there are now positive signs that local churches across the UK are now beginning to re-understand the roots of our faith in a God who is Creator as well as Redeemer. Too many of us seem to think that Christianity began at Bethlehem and we forget everything that went before.
Demonstrations of such ‘greening’ can be found in both action and reflection. The growth of the Retreats Movement and in tertiary religious orders such as the Franciscans is partly due to a re-discovery and a re-connection with the Earth (Eretz).
In Devon, signs of hope are seen in more creationfocussed worship as at places like Sparkwell and with outdoor liturgies which bring us in closer contact with the rhythms of life. There are several parishes or Mission Communities with some form of eco-group. For some the quest for social justice (e.g. through fair trade or community economics) needs to be accompanied by environmental justice. St. Paul’s at Newton Abbot is a positive example of working towards both. In Plymouth there is a city-wide Christian Ecology Group.
Ottery St. Mary recently attracted over 500 people to an exhibition on re-cycling and re-use in the parish church. Eco-congregations at Barnstaple Parish and Crediton Methodist Church are also beacons of good practice. At Tiverton, members of St. George’s have been re-cycling paper for several years and bringing an income to the church as well as keeping refuse from the waste-stream.
The Diocese of Exeter is now actively seeking to reduce its carbon emissions as part of the Shrinking the Footprint campaign. This is being done through reducing the need for energy (e.g. insulating all parsonages), decreasing waste (installing boilers with 90%-98% efficiency of fuel-burning), procuring renewable energy and even producing some of its own electricity (e.g. by photo-voltaic panels on church property).
Churches in some areas are participating in the exciting ‘Transition Towns’ movement. Here local people are seeking to change their communities to a life after ‘Peak Oil’. How will we live when energy is not as cheap or available as now? Christians in Totnes, for instance, are very involved in this which has led to the introduction of a local currency (Totnes Pounds) as a means of supporting local production.
In October more than 200 people crowded into St. Peter’s, Bovey Tracey to celebrate the first anniversary of Bovey Climate Action which has instigated more than 10 projects in a year including a possible community power-generation plant.
None of these are ends in themselves but they all point in the same direction - that “Another World Is Possible!”. In a society currently dominated by fear and fragmentation, it is vital that we cooperate more together to protect future generations, to work in harmony with God’s whole creation and thereby to build the reign of God in our midst.
Martyn Goss
Diocesan Development officer, Council for Church & Society, Exeter Diocese.
