Wakefield Cathedral: Catch-Up Article
Friday, 5th November 2021
Well, it’s Friday and we are half-way through the high-speed juggernaut (electric obvs) of hope that is COP26.
There has been much discussion about what ‘should’ be done. Currently we will be hearing about what ‘can’ be done, and subsequently what is ‘pledged’. What actually happens? We will have to wait and see, probably for a long time.
You and I will be encouraged to take more personal and corporate responsibility – more than ever before – for our planet. We will do so, and yet sometimes it will seem like too much is asked of us.
We will encounter the very human response of – ‘what difference can I make, and why should I care?’
I joined Greenpeace over thirty years ago when no one really cared, and only the Scouts were recycling paper! Taking responsibility for the environment back then was edgy and difficult.
We have much more opportunity to make a difference now. Even so….
This is what we will hear: Change your car. Change your habits. Buy less. Use less. Cycle and recycle. Shop around. Protest and stick to the road! Do your ‘bit’! Do it now!
What else?
The global climate catastrophe, of which we are all deeply involved, and must resolve, is primarily about justice. Not all nations perceive, or can engage with, global warming universally. Many will be affected in ways we cannot imagine in this country.
We have a responsibility to God’s creation – in its entirety.
We are gifted with a mutual dependence: that we cannot exist separate from the created world.
And thus, we are not only caretakers to this earth but stewards of its rich resources, and agents of change for those who benefit less and less, who struggle with injustice and inequality.
As Christian disciples we will always have prayer as our resource. So pray for a common agenda, to seek a common ‘good’.
Our biblical and theological traditions are boundless in their thanksgiving of God’s universal bounty. Creation, the world and all its inhabitants are a testimony to the love God has shown and continues to reveal every day.
So go and share it with everyone, that we all become beacons of hope and change! Enjoy the beauty we discover every day!
I pray we will reverence God’s love, in all humility, by engaging with the challenges of the age in any way we can.
Have courage.