Eco-Congregation
In the month when
St Bridgets receives its Eco-congregation Award, the Rector writes on environmental concerns from a Christian
perspective.
Ten years or so ago the
"eco-warriors" turned up at Manchester Airport. You may recall from the TV and other media reports
that "Swampy" and his friends, occupied ancient woodland that was in
the path of the excavations for the second runway, and attempted to prevent the
work continuing. There were tussles with the Airport security staff and Police,
and eventually and inevitably the protestors went their way, the trees were
felled and the tarmac laid. But their
point was made, and similar protests in the 1990s ensured that environmental
issues became part of our consciousness rather more than they had in the past.
Whatever you and I may
think of the rights and wrongs of particular cases (and, as a Priest working in
a Parish very near the Airport, I was very aware of the economic necessity of
airport expansion for Manchester), we cannot avoid "green" issues any
more.
In this Parish over the
last few years the work of Sally Cashen and the "Eco-congregation"
team have raised our consciousness of
environmental and conservation issues to the extent that we have now been formally
recognized by the ecumenical
"Eco-congregation" movement, and will be receiving an "Eco-congregation" award (the
first in Chester Diocese). We have
become more aware of how we can live more eco-friendly life-styles, we have
provided practical resources to do this, we have developed our own conservation
work (eg in the Churchyard) and have been involved in
learning through House groups and more formal teaching. Many of us, myself
included, have been challenged about issues of recycling and sustainability
slowly our attitudes and our lives have changed.
But what are the roots of
our environmental concerns ? Is it
simply a matter of "jumping on the bandwagon", of trying to be
"relevant" or "trendy", or is there a Christian origin to
what we do, based on Scripture and tradition ?
Ought we not (some might say) to be concentrating on
"spiritual" things rather than things ephemeral ?
It's important to
challenge such views when we hear them, and to do so in the knowledge of the
implications of our faith. For the Christian there is no separation between the
physical and the spiritual, to the detriment of either.
The Genesis stories for
example (the poetry of creation giving us the "why" just as Science
give us the "how") affirm the goodness of Creation. Again and again
as things come into being the writer affirms how in the eyes of God they are
"very good". If the Creator God calls them good, we should do so
also. Every level of creation, throughout the "six days" is called
good, and is good in itself, long before humanity appears on the scene. These
things matter to God in themselves, not simply because they are useful to
us. How much more is that so when, in
the light of the theory of Evolution, we
realize how many millions of years were required for things to come into
being.
This surely means that
issues of care for the environment and for the animal creation are not optional
for Christians but part and parcel of our faith in a Creator God. It means that what are called "animal
rights" issues are issues we cannot avoid, nor are the specific issues of
the use of animals in research or of hunting.
To be sure, there are no easy answers here, and there needs to be much
debate but wherever we stand, we are not able to sidestep the issues as irrelevant
they too are spiritual matters.
As we read on in the
Genesis stories our obligations become even clearer. As humanity is brought
into being at the end of the process there is the command to "rule
over" the earth, and
"subdue" it. This can sound as
if we are given carte-blanche to do
what we like, but we need to understand that the context and meaning of those
words is one of responsibility and authority. Men and women bearing the image
of God, are given a delegated authority to be his stewards of creation we are
answerable to God for what we do, and to
abuse the creation is to
disfigure something of his image in us.
In the same way, the call to "subdue" has the sense of bringing into
order just as in the second creation story the animals are brought to Adam to
be named, and creation is made intelligible.
All this can be drawn
from a single Chapter of the Old Testament a powerful sign of the goodness of
Creation and of our obligations towards it. Christians go even further,
acknowledging that God is intimately bound up with his creation and revealed in
it, above all in the flesh of Jesus for the Creator becomes incarnate. From that flows the conviction that the
Sacraments are outward signs and vessels of God's grace and presence to us.
There is no dichotomy between creation and the things of the Spirit as
Archbishop William Temple once famously said, "Christianity is the most
material of religions".
As an eco-congregation
and as individuals we have a long way to go (I know I have), but we have made a
good beginning, and we know that we cannot turn back. To care for the earth and
all that is in it, is no option, but essential to our faith and our mission.
Roger
Clarke
November
2006