A summary of the recent ecumenical report to Conference, for discusison at the next house group meeting on Tuesday 6 October (time and venue on request to 0780 359 2206) and for wider reflection
The Context of the report
There is now a scientific consensus that global warming is happening and could be much faster and more severe than currently predicted. It is already expected to cause major climate change, the inundation of coastal areas, river deltas and islands, mass extinctions of animals, serious disruption to food production and unpredictable and dangerous weather events.
The Theological Response to global warming
- We should continue to hope and not give in to despair because God’s creatures cannot ultimately frustrate the will of God.
- But this is not an alternative to doing nothing about global warming. It is a reason for bold action to mitigate the effects because the world does matter and God cannot sort out the mess without our active involvement.
- God has repeatedly called us, through Jesus and the Prophets, to acts of love and justice.
- Hearing the cries for help from our neighbours is a Bible imperative – e.g. those who will be most affected by famine or flood. “[These] are nations left wounded by our negligence in the past, whose injuries we continue to worsen through our irresponsibility in the present.”
- We need to understand what it means to be good neighbours to those who have not yet been born. We need to pay an immediate price to safeguard the future.
- The Biblical vision of the solidarity between all God’s creatures fits the modern understanding of our shared genetic inheritance with other living things.
- Our dominion over the earth must reflect God’s concern for creation.
- The Bible proclaims that when we abdicate our responsibility for creation we bring God’s judgement on ourselves, but judgement is a sign that God continues to care about us instead of abandoning us to our fate.
- We must acknowledge that the economic progress which has benefited us is the direct cause of what has gone wrong and that we will find it hard to let go of lifestyles which are helping to destroy the world as we know it.
- God’s grace will help us to desire a forgiven life.
- We are called to intercede with God for the world, but our prayers must include uncomfortable petitions for urgent, bold and costly actions by the world’s leaders, not just easy intercessions for everything to be put right.
- “Through participation in Christ, we are made capable of lives we could not otherwise live.” We are equipped and enabled to work together for change.
- It is incumbent on those who have generated the most carbon emissions and derived the greatest benefit from them to pioneer the path towards alternative energy.
The Call to Practical Action
- Reducing the carbon footprint of churches and their members is the only morally authentic basis for calling for change.
- It has to begin by measuring what our carbon footprint is now so that we know what is required to reduce it.
- Small groups of people can work together to hold group members to account for their carbon footprint.
- We need to contribute to the public debate about what to do.
- We cannot simply allow the UK to buy the right to use other people’s carbon because this is unjust.
- We need to work with other faith and non-religious groups to lobby more effectively.
- We must make sure that the poorest and most vulnerable members of society are not disproportionately affected by the changes that need to be made.
- We must remember that global warming is one of many environmental threats to the world, including threats to biodiversity, deforestation, water shortages, depletion of non-renewable resources and rapid population growth.
- We need to recognise that the issue is complicated – e.g. balancing the economic benefits of trading fairly traded goods around the world against the carbon costs of long-distance trade.
- We need to make a journey like the Exodus from Egypt “which has a destination only future generations will reach and benefit from… The most difficult part of such a journey is … the leaving without looking back.”
The Methodist Conference commends the report as a helpful guide for reflection and action, and encourages Local Churches, Circuits and Districts to enable these through prayer, preaching, Bible study, teaching, discussion and acts of corporate confession, repentance and commitment.
Sandal Methodist Church 