"We believe that God created the world and I think lots of Christians recognise that it’s somewhat crazy to be singing hymns praising God as creator and the wonders of creation on Sunday and then going around and trampling on the earth on Monday" - Rev Dr Ann Wansbrough Picture: iStockPhoto.com

19th September, 2003

DAVID ADAMS takes a look at how churches in Australia and around the globe are promoting the message of environmental sustainability...

“ I think if you see the world as God’s creation then it’s imperative that we care for it.”

So says Colin Brown, an environmental lawyer and chief executive of the recently launched agency, Catholic Earthcare Australia.

Created in June last year following a conference of Australian Catholic bishops, Catholic Earthcare Australia has a mandate to highlight ecological issues both within the Catholic Church and beyond.

Brown says the move to establish the agency - chaired by the John Bathersby, the Archbishop of Brisbane - followed ongoing calls by Pope John Paul II over the past 15 years for people to undergo what he terms an “ecological conversion” - in essence to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

“ Our mandate is primarily to promote this ecological conversion within the church,” he says.

“ It’s about looking at lifestyle...so it means looking at our water use and our energy use and recycling, what are we purchasing - the ethical aspects of that, and even investments.”

Brown says the organisation is also encouraging industry and home-owners to undertake an “environmental audit” to highlight those areas where action is most needed.

In a further bid to raise awareness of environmental issues, Catholic Earthcare Australia are working with one parish in each diocese around the country in a bid to create a series of “eco-parishes” which can then act as a “lighthouse” for other parishes. There are also hopes the agency will be able to work with other churches, particularly in more rural and remote areas.

“ It’s a major, major shift in many ways,” Brown says. “It’s almost a new language for some people.”
That Christians have been expressing their concerns about the environment is nothing new - Brown, for example, mentions the work of Columban priest Father Sean McDonagh and even that of St Francis of Assisi.

But the last few decades have seen a growing number of Christians, through their involvement in Christian or secular environmental groups, getting ever more active.

One such group is the United Kingdom-based environmental charity, Christian Ecology Link (CEL).
Formed in 1981 when a group of Christian Green Party members decided to establish a group for Christians concerned about the environment, CEL provides resources - such as leaflets covering environmental issues, a tri-annual magazine, videos and a monthly prayer guide - to encourage Christians and churches across the UK and the world to take practical action to help the environment as well as raising awareness about environmental concerns.

Its major campaigns currently include LOAF - which encourages people to eat “locally grown, organic, animal friendly and fairly-traded” food - and Operation Noah - a major campaign to combat climate change which will be formally launched next year.

“ CEL believes conservation of the Earth is important because as Christians we believe the Earth belongs to God,” explains information officer, Laura Deacon.

“ Creation is God’s gift to us...therefore we have a duty and a responsibility to care for (it)."
Deacon, who has been a member of the group since 1994, adds that not enough Christians see their work as “directly related to caring for Creation”.

“ Too many emphasise only personal salvation and not the salvation of the whole of Creation,” she writes in an email to Sight.

“ Christianity then becomes only interested in life after death and not with life here on Earth. Too much heaven and not enough Earth!”

“ The ecology and environment resonates pretty strongly among the younger generation. It’s stirred up a lot of interest and it’s also stirred up a lot of interest within the conservation groups who have been keen to talk to us.” - Colin Brown Picture: iStockPhoto.com

Back in Australia, meanwhile, the National Council of Churches (the NCCA is made up of 15 member churches) has released a mission statement calling for the Christian faith to “be a major force for change towards sustainable development” and a “change of spirit and attitude”.

Calling sustainable development “one of the most urgent moral tasks of our time”, the statement calls on the Australian Government to, among a host of other specific and non-specific appeals, “adopt environmental policies that do not steal from present and future generations, recognising that poverty and environmental degradation are interwoven and that it is the poor who suffer most from this degradation”.

Elsewhere it encourages the community to “demonstrate simplicity of lifestyle rather than over-consumption and greed” and to be thoughtful about the resources they use.

Rev Dr Ann Wansbrough, chair of the NCCA’s social justice committee, says the statement, in some senses, goes to the heart of Christian belief.

“ We believe that God created the world and I think lots of Christians recognise that it’s somewhat crazy to be singing hymns praising God as creator and the wonders of creation on Sunday and then going around and trampling on the earth on Monday,” she says.

“ There’s been this recognition, I would think for several decades now at some level in the church, that if you’re concerned about people, you’ve got to be concerned about the environment because we’re part of the web of life and we’re totally dependent on the environment around us.

“ On the other hand we’ve also begun to recognise that God didn’t just create humankind; God did actually create the rest of the species in this world and they do have some value in their own right. There is a beautiful passage that says God looked at what God made and saw that it was good and that doesn’t just apply to humankind.”

Rev Dr Wansbrough said the release of the NCCA statement itself didn’t mark any “great new trend” but was, given the years of work that had been going on surrounding environmental issues among Christian churches, simply issued in recognition that it was the right time for churches to make a public statement as a group.

She said that while there appeared to be a growing trend for Christians and Christian organisations to address environmental issues, “I don’t think we should under-estimate the fact that several churches have been working on environmental issues for a number of years”. Rev Dr Wansbrough also points out that Christian groups don’t necessarily need to be created to replicate work already being done by secular organisations and adds that many Christians are already involved with such groups.

“ There’s some terrific work going on in the community,” she says. “Get in and work with them. We don’t always have to have our brand name on it.”

Brown, meanwhile, says the establishment of Catholic Earthcare Australia, had been particularly well received among younger church members.

“ The ecology and environment resonates pretty strongly among the younger generation. It’s stirred up a lot of interest and it’s also stirred up a lot of interest within the conservation groups who have been keen to talk to us.”

Brown says the move had also been well received by other churches.

“ There’s been a great spirit of co-operation and a genuine excitement,” he says. “It’s also a wonderful way to evangelise - it’s taking the message out to the people.”

Catholic Earthcare is currently in the process of forming an advisory council which will be made up of nine men and women who have ecological expertise.

Brown says they will be looking at issues such as the health of the Murray-Darling basin, land clearing in Queensland and the future of the Great Barrier Reef.

“ It’s (about) being the advocates for creation and better management of our resources and our rivers and also about justice issues such as equitable use of water,” he says.

“ These are pretty big issues that the Government’s been grappling with, so I think it’s time the church entered that debate.”