Caring for God's Creation

The National Synod of Scotland of the United Reformed Church expresses its vision through a series of affirmations. These are not fixed in stone, but form a moving (and capable of being updated) vision statement. I am exploring these in turn in a series of brief articles. This piece reflects on the seventh aspiration which focusses on our care for God’s CREATION. As a Synod we are committed to play our part in caring for creation. The Synod expresses its vision through a series of aspirations which describe something of our core aims. We need constantly to be rethinking these, and yet it is good for a maintain commitment to a series of core aims. I have been reflecting on how these aspirations can be part of our life, and this piece considers the seventh which focusses on our concern with and for the environment. We believe we are called to live in balance with the whole of CREATION. Many local churches participate in the Eco-Congregation scheme. Eco-Congregation Scotland provides resources to support churches in keeping climate change and environmental concern on their agendas and in their worship. It provides worship and study material and a multitude of ideas for action. Eco-Congregation awards are an optional, but important, part of the programme, encouraging churches to take seriously their environmental commitment by recognising them for doing so. This critical issue demands the attention – and comment – of today’s church. As Ian Bradley says (in “God Is Green: Christianity and the Environment”, 2020) – “if Christians fail to speak out and act on the most important issue of our time we will not only have lost an enormous missionary and pastoral opportunity but we will have failed the human race and the planet. We will also have failed the triune God.” The creation is vitally important. The Genesis 1 account of it reminds us that God was pleased with the good thing that had been done. We now have the task of looking after that creation which means that we must correct, in any way that we can, the damage that has been done to the planet. There may be much that is past repair, but that cannot be other than a stronger reason for doing all that we can, which is indeed, as Bradley identifies, part of our missionary and pastoral challenge. Alistair McIntosh (in “Riders on the Storm”, 2020) underlines the futility of panic but the equal senselessness of not addressing the climate change issue – “Climate change denial is a waste of time. But climate change alarmism is a theft of time. We have no mandate to collapse the possibilities of the future, to contract and restrict our latitude for agency and action.” Bradley further comments – “We cannot deny that the Bible portrays humans as occupying a unique place and fulfilling a key role in the working out of God’s plan for the whole of creation. Alone among all creatures, humans are fashioned in God’s own image. They are also given a commission by God to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. As we have seen, this is far from being the warrant for domination and exploitation that it has so often been taken to be but it still suggests that there is a special role and responsibility for humans vis-à-vis the rest of creation.” Our commitment to what has now long been called the ‘integrity of creation’ is a vital part of our mission planning, often defined for us in the small things we can do in terms of recycling, green travel, planting trees, energy efficiency, buying local produce and so much more.