Creationtide Explained

 

I have been asked to explain Creationtide. This in my capacity as a member of the Green Ginger Group, which exists to force the decision-makers of St John's to consider environmental issues every time they face a choice. Some churches, I have noticed, call it Creationtime.

One strand in Western thinking, frequently the dominant strand in Christianity, has been to regard Creation as a pyramid with the human race at the top. Everything exists to help the human race. The value of everything is measured by it usefulness to the human race. It is possible to derive this wrong interpretation from a misreading of the Book of Genesis. It received a considerable boost in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for the science of those days sometimes seemed to be about humanity establishing control over Creation.

This was never the only strand of thinking. In the wonderful last section of Book of Job, for example, the complete independence of God's Creation from human convenience is asserted. This is one of the messages to be found in the story of Jonah, which we studied in Lent. And the twenty-first century scientist, like the modern ecologist and the modern theologian, is more likely to see the value of every item of Creation for its own sake, the unknowable vastness and complexity of Creation, the inter-relationship of all the pieces and so on. It was not an accident that our theme in 2013 brought forth respectful praise of midges and ticks as well as of pretty, lovable animals.

Scientists now are in broad agreement that the human race (and much life on Earth) is experiencing a massive ecological crisis, facing mass extinctions caused by pollution, climate change and so on. We have to improve our relationship with Creation, and get rid of short-term selfishness.

Creationtide, devised in 1989 is adopted by more and more churches all over the world. It is September 1 to October 4^th , climaxing in Harvest Festival and in the Feast of St Francis. All the resources of the church are used to get us to think responsibly about Creation. More knowledge, less selfish attitudes, mutual respect, wonder and changed behaviour are all part of it.

Every year at St John's we have a theme to focus our studies. This year, 2021, it is Climate change, in the run-up to COP26. By the time you read this Creationtide will be well advanced. Do take advantage of this inspiring season, to be part of making things better.

COP26 Exhibition - Intern Update

We asked Emily, the intern who is working to promote our COP26 Exhibition, to let us know a little bit about how she is getting on.  After hearing what she had to say we think she could have just said 'Amazingly'! Here's her response:

This is just a brief informal notice to say hello and to introduce myself in this role. My name is Emily, and I’ve been employed over July and August to help organise the Together Trust’s October exhibition for COP-26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference. 
 
Members of the churches have been capably organising their congregations contributions, which has been a blessing in allowing me to concentrate on outreach. Writing this from two-thirds of the way through my time on this project, I thought that I might give you an update on what I’ve been focussing on so far, and what I hope to have achieved by the time that I leave. 
 
In the first week I reached out to all of Edinburgh University’s international student societies, with positive responses from the Malaysian, Mecian, and Indian society presidents. Once student life resumes its normal pace, I’m confident that the exhibition will gain contributions that reflect these international perspectives. 
 
In the second week I created an instagram page, which I hope will allow the exhibition to reach a more general audience. This page will also serve to link the Together Trust’s exhibition with other nation-wide events for COP-26. I also ran the first of our public drawing workshops, with the second to be held outside St Cuthbert’s on Thursday 26th August, 1.30pm to 2.45pm. Please do attend if you are able! 
 
In the third week I countacted Scouting and Girlguiding groups, and in the fourth, interfaith and LGBTQ+ organisations. I had a positive response from Edinburgh’s Hindu Mandir as well as the Muslim Women’s Association, with the latter group submitting both a join banner and several individual works alongside the tapestries that were made with St John’s last year. Our Tribe, a group that supports LGBTQ+ Christians, has reserved an entire board for their groups contributions. 
 
As we approach the present, I have had conversations with the president of the Scottish Arts Club and the headmistress of St Mary’s RC Primary School, both of whom are confident that their communities will have plenty to submit. I ran the first of two painting workshops with the organisation Steps To Hope, from which the exhibition gained works from Edinburgh’s homeless community. 
 
Next week I will speak to a representative from Stitches for Survival, a Craftivist collective who are keen to support our exhibition. I am also hoping to arrange meetings with the Art Department of the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, and a representative for the art programme at four local primary schools, both of whom have expressed interest over email. I also hope to make contact with Dementia groups and nursing homes in the city, as well as year-round drawing and art clubs. 
 
As I’m sure that this whistlestop tour has shown, at the heart of this exhibition are the voices of the Edinburgh community. We hope to represent the city in all of its diversity, providing a space to amplify the voices of all age groups, social backgrounds, and faiths. My role is to support the work that the committee has been doing within the churches of the Together Trust, using the resources given to me by the Edinburgh Presbytry to broaden the scope of this project. I still very much hope to see each of your individual contributions come October- whether in the form of a drawing, photograph, or musical score- but hope that through this notice I have provided some context for the works that they will be hanging alongside. By gathering such diverse voices, the exhibition can achieve its aim of representing what the people of Edinburgh have to say about the topics that politicians will be discussing fifty miles West. 

The Edinburgh Climate Strategy

 Edinburgh has a vision to reach net zero by 2030. 

That’s the ambitious target of the Draft Edinburgh Climate Strategy which is out for consultation for the next month.

While it’s fantastic to see the city set such a bold target, they haven’t made it very easy to engage in the consultation. This makes me wonder how successful they will be in achieving the huge level of citizen engagement which will be required to deliver this huge transition.

For a start, the draft Strategy is a 76 page report, the Executive Summary of 21 pages, and the consultation is a questionnaire of around 35 questions — a tall order for the average citizen who has little time and/or little expertise in critiquing climate strategies.

What are Edinburgh’s carbon emissions now?

The most interesting information in my view is the ‘baseline’. This is the picture of what our current climate emissions are and what is causing them. This is essential to set a meaningful and strategic plan for reducing them to net zero. Unfortunately they’re not in the Executive Summary, but these charts show a few key headlines:

Edinburgh’s carbon emissions are 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Almost 70% comes from ‘stationary energy’ — heating, lighting etc. A further quarter comes from transport. 

Edinburgh needs to double the rate of carbon reduction from industry and business, treble it from homes — and reduce transport emissions twelve times faster.

Electricity (in red) is increasingly from low-carbon sources like wind and solar. But the burning of gas for heating (blue) and petrol and diesel for transport (purple) urgently needs to come down.

What that these figures tell me is that there are two big challenges: buildings and transport. We need to insulate our homes, switch from gas to low carbon energy, and reduce car use drastically. 

Will the strategy deliver net zero? 

I haven’t had time to dissect all 76 pages of the strategy, but I’m concerned that it has not focused sufficiently on tackling these big problems. Too much emphasis seems to me to be placed on getting people to change, and not enough on assessing why people don’t change and making it easy for them. 

If people fail to respond to this consultation, is it because they don’t care about climate change? We know that’s not the case. Is it because the consultation is very difficult to respond to, and they lack the time, knowledge and infrastructure? Could this same problem repeat itself with calls to cycle more, insulate your home, or engage with the process through community councils or groups like churches?

I really, really want this strategy to deliver. I want to live in a net zero city by 2030. But I’m not sure how to help the Council do that. Back in 2010, St John’s Church decided to measure and reduce its carbon emissions as an institution and community, and discovered some of the challenges and pitfalls involved in doing that. Could we And other churches in Edinburgh find ways to help unblock the sticking points, and achieve the zero carbon city in which we all want to live?

What can the churches do? 

People wonder why churches prescribe prayer and worship in these situations, but throughout history the one has created the neural pathways and the other the collective pathways that create miracles. Have a look, see what you think, talk to people, attend the events or answer the questions if you can. And as churches let’s make it part of our prayer and worship too, and see if we can help to make some of those links to pull Edinburgh through this great transition. 

The IPCC and the Holy Spirit

Today the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest report on the state of the climate, ahead of the COP26 summit. Global temperatures have risen 0.9 degrees. Humans are causing it. The past five years were the hottest on record. Sea levels are rising. 

The scientific, emotionless tone of the scientific report contrasts with the frantic headlines reporting it: 

‘Code red for humanity’ 

‘Major climate change irreversible’

‘1.5 degrees slipping beyond reach’

We’ve heard it all before, plenty of times, and we know it’s worse every time. 

What are the emotional response options? Despair? Guilt? Frantic activity? Eremitic or hedonistic disengagement? None of these are Christian responses. What does being a disciple of Love mean in the face of headlines like these? 

The same as it always has — although it provides a context which means we may never hear those old words the same way again. 

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ — even when you vehemently disagree with them. 

‘Who is my neighbour?’ — when they are flooded, dying of heatstroke, or their crops have failed. 

‘Before we were yet sinners, yet Christ died for us,’ — our personal responsibility for climate change is not to be dwelt on...

‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’ — ... and nor is anyone else’s. 

‘By these wounds we are saved’ — ... and nor is our personal success in tackling climate change.

‘Do not worry about what you will eat, or what you will wear’ — in fact, it’s people worrying about all that which has got us into this state.

‘But these three remain: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.’ — what does that mean though, in all this?

‘Come, follow me’ — we have a calling, we have the example of Christ to follow, of what it means to choose Love as your God. 

But that isn’t going to change the worl ... oh, wait. 

If you haven’t been troubled by climate change, you probably haven’t taken it seriously enough yet. But if you’ve sat and listened to the gospel every week and haven’t found in it a path through climate change, you perhaps haven’t been taking it seriously enough either. 

Climate change is a huge existential crisis caused by people like us, and threatening life on the planet. You and I are only two of eight billion people, and have no earthly power over what is happening. We need a light more powerful than this darkness to guide us through it, as long as we are around to be part of this story. 

Is our funny old, jargon-ridden, history-tarnished, unfashionable religion meaningful, relevant, and sufficient? It is to me. Climate change is going to be here every minute of the rest of my life. But so is the ever-present Love which we choose and summon as God, and call in our funny old jargon, Holy Spirit. 

Come, Holy Spirit. 

Our Precious and Precarious World

 It is a well-known cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is your chance to make a statement, worth at least a thousand words, in readiness for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021. 

"Our Precious and Precarious World" is an art exhibition that is going to be held in Edinburgh in the last week in October. The Conference is to take place at the beginning of November. We would like you to make work for it. It might be drawing, painting, collage, photography, fabric - as you wish. Small sculptures will also be welcome. 

A very important point about this exhibition is that it is not just for those who think of themselves as artists. Your statement will be welcome and will speak your thousand words whatever your approach. Of course, high quality work from artists will also be most welcome. But the plan is to have the exhibition space filled with expressive and thought-provoking images. Each artist is allowed up to three works, so there should be hundreds.

To find out more about it go to this link. It tells you more about what is planned and leads you on to further information about submitting works. The exhibition is going to be very exciting, so I hope you will be able to submit work. 

COP26

COP26 is the shorthand name given to the 26^th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, which takes place later this year in Glasgow. The conference has 4 goals:

 

1.     To ‘secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.
In other words countries are being asked to take action to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century, and to ensure that the planet increases in temperature by no more than 1.5degrees by 2100

2.     To ‘adapt to protect communities and natural habitats’
This includes working to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to protect and restore ecosystems

3.     To ‘mobilise finance’
In order to achieve these first 2 goals the richer countries of the world developed countries are challenged to deliver on their promise to raise at least $100bn in climate finance per year.

4.     To’ work together to deliver’
As a group of nations we can only rise to the challenges of climate change by working together. At COP26 we must finalise the Paris Rulebook (the rules needed to implement the Paris Agreement).

 

St John's, along with the other Edinburgh City Centre Churches Together churches,  is working to organise a major art exhibition prior to COP26 as a way of informing people about the conference and encouraging them to engage with the issues it is addressing.  Further details in a forthcoming blog on here.

There will, of course, be more besides so please do keep your eyes and ears open!

Putting the Environment on the Political Agenda

At the end of September, St John's Church launched a campaign to ask candidates for the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2016 to make an environmental issue one of their headline manifesto pledges.

Too often, environmental issues are buried on p.20 of a manifesto, or shelved under a consensus that 'we all agree mitigating climate change and reversing biodiversity decline are important'. A consensus on aims does not preclude passionate debate between parties on methods: on nuclear and renewables, biodiversity and food security, affordable energy and energy efficiency, rewilding and plantation forestry, marine protection and fisheries, active travel, air passenger duty, land-use strategy.

The result is a conspiracy of silence: voters do not see the environment mentioned on politicians'  leaflets amongst welfare, security, health or education; therefore they do not think to name the environment when asked for their top political issues; therefore politicians do not hear that it is important to voters; and the media, taking their agenda from both, do not raise it as a topic of debate.

Yet 88% of the public believe that biodiversity is indispensable for the production of food, fuel and medicines, and 94% believe we have a moral obligation to halt biodiversity loss.* The environment should be a vote-winner, and a way to engage people disenchanted with politics.

The aim of Environment Agenda is simple: to break that conspiracy of silence, by enabling voters, early in the election process, to ask Holyrood candidates to put environmental issues amongst their manifesto headlines.

Since its launch, members of churches in Edinburgh have written over 100 postcards to their local candidates, and Eleanor Harris, co-ordinator of the campaign, has been delivering them. 'Candidates have been delighted to receive postcards,' she writes. 'It gives them a mandate to speak out about issues they already believe is important. St John's is a politically active church with members representing the whole political spectrum, and all have been keen to get their parties involved in the campaign. The church was a good platform to launch Environment Agenda, but I hope it will be taken up much more widely by community and environmental groups.'

Eleanor Harris (left) delivering Environment Agenda postcards to Alison Dickie, SNP candidate for Edinburgh Central.

Sarah Boyack MSP, candidate for Edinburgh Central and Labour spokesperson on the environment, encouraged church members and others to take part in the campaign: "people underestimate the impact of writing to their political representatives. With the upcoming Paris Talks in December Eco-Congregations can really have an impact when they mobilise their members".

The campaign is still in its early days: many constituencies do not yet have selected candidates. If your church, community group or environmental organisation would like to take part, please get in touch with Eleanor at eleanormharris@gmail.com.

Delivering Environment Agenda postcards to Edinburgh Labour candidates: Kezia Dugdale (Eastern), Sarah Boyack (Central), Daniel Johnson (Southern), Cat Headley (Western), Lesley Hinds (Northern and Leith) and Blair Heary (Pentlands).

* Response for Nature, an important policy document launched in October 2015 by wildlife organisations, which you can download here.