With the COP26 conference on at the moment, creation care is very high on the agenda - a good challenge for us at St Francis. As Christians, caring for creation is not only important - it's what God has entrusted to us. And as we know, climate change is impacting the most vulnerable with devastating consequences - the cartoon above so graphically illustrates this. Caring for creation is also a matter of justice and a way in which carry out Jesus' mandate to love one another.
The church council have a recently formed a church energy efficiency team headed up by Brian King, and they are currently carrying out an energy audit. Jan Moring has started a column in Chrysalis looking at environmental matters. There's lots more we can do and if you'd like to help us as a church move to the next stage of creation care, I'd love to hear from you - even if it's just to help and encourage us in one small area.
Doing nothing is not an option. My daily Bible notes (Lectio365) focus on Climate change this week, and draw on the Old Testament story of Esther. She can ask the King to spare the lives of the Jews but at first feels overwhelmed and unable to help. Mordecai encourages her beyond fear to fast, pray, and then act. Author, Ruth Valerio, continues: 'Like Esther, we are facing an emergency. There is a part of me that doesn't want to think about it, and I focus instead on the daily concernsof my life that are also pressing. But now is 'such a time as this.' Every extra fracion of a degree makes our climate more usable and unpredictable, with catastrophic impacts. I am called to pray and to stand with others in urging our Governments to take urgent action.'
How will we respond?
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