Spirit that freed South Africa must now rescue the planet

Poor countries are finally gaining a voice in the debates around Climate Change.
This article is written by Desmond Tutu.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/spirit-that-freed-south-africa-must-now-rescue-the-planet-20091022-hbch.html

Greening our Homes and Churches speech

I gave this speech at City Church at Night:

Around the middle of last year I was chosen as an Australian delegate to the Asia Pacific Interfaith Youth Camp on Climate Change in Surubaya, Indonesia. In preparation for this trip, I conducted research into the Christian obligation to care for the environment so I would be able to share this point of view with those from other faiths. I came to what was, perhaps, a belated realisation- my faith compelled me to combine the work I was doing for the environment and the work I was doing for God, and indeed I was being called to do so. Soon after the camp, I started the Five Leaf Eco-Awards, an ecumenical church greening program designed to help churches become more environmentally friendly; and ever since I have endeavoured to do all that I can to promote the church greening movement in Australia.

I have been invited here tonight to paint a picture of how we might green our churches and homes, and how we might be able to fight global problems locally. I have also come to share with you a vision of what the church could be; a vision that goes something like this:

It’s Sunday morning so I drag myself out of bed and ride my bike to church. As I enter the solar panels on the roof glint in the sun and I can see the water tank peeking around the side. I am greeted by a smiling face and handed a newssheet printed on recycled paper. I flick to the environmental tips and events section and scan the offerings. I move to a table to place some native flowers and a box of fruit from my garden on it for distribution. I grab a cup of Fairtrade coffee and sit in the sun to enjoy the building’s passive heating. In worship we sing thanks to God for the wonders of creation and as it is September and we are doing the Season of Creation we have an interesting sermon about the need to follow Biblical practices and values in our lives in order to reduce our environmental impact. When we share communion it is with tasty, freshly baked bread from organic flour and environmentally friendly grape juice. The gentle light of beeswax candles and sunlight lights the scene.

In our prayers for others our weekly endangered species prayer is for the endangered frogs we had a talk about at the youth meeting on Friday. We also thank God for the way he has blessed and added to our church through our environmental work. After the service I pack up my copy of the Green Bible and join the communal lunch. Fresh, local, vegetarian food abounds and is shared with the homeless. After the meal I quickly make a couple of arrangements for the clothes and tool swap next week. On the way out I meet up with the church greening group and we head out to Greenhills Camp and Conference Centre for a working bee. Our Canberra Christian Environmental Action group is going quite well, with our church teams and local conservation groups making quite a difference around Canberra by dedicating a few hours per week. It is a testament to the way the church has now taken leadership in the environmental arena.

Ok, so I’m dreaming. Yet I have not mentioned anything that is not possible, nor anything that could not, in theory, be started today. The church could, and I think should, lead the future development of the environmental movement, and I would like churches like this to be a part of that.
But we are not there yet, and an important part of greening our churches and homes is understanding the impact we have so that we know how we can improve.

Let’s start with our ecological footprint. Firstly, does everyone know what an ecological footprint is?

Basically, it is the area of land and resources needed to support our lifestyle.

Ok, can anyone guess what the ecological footprint of a person living in the Civic area of Canberra is?

It’s actually 8.59 hectares. And the national average is 6.4 hectares, about the
size of 9 rugby league fields. As we can see, 40.5% of this impact comes from the food we eat and 30.3% from the other goods and services we buy, but clothing, construction and electricity also figure.

What about the amount of water someone living in civic uses? Any guesses?
We use 1,090,000 litres per person per year. Do people think this is higher or lower than the national average?

It’s quite a bit higher, with the average being 722,500 litres – which is almost enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. Again, this is mostly used in food and goods and services with 16.1% being used in households.

What about our greenhouse gas emissions? In civic the average person creates 30.53 tonnes of GHG pollution each year. Does anyone know the national average? It’s 18.9 tonnes, or around 9 round car trips from Perth to Melbourne.

If you would like to look up these figures for your suburb you can visit the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Consumption Atlas at www.acfonline.org.au/consumptionatlas or you can calculate your own ecological footprint by looking up the eco-calculator on the ACF Green Home website.

So what makes these figures important? I believe you have been hearing about the global impacts of climate change over the last few weeks in services, but do you know what some of the predictions for NSW and the ACT are?
• In NSW/ACT if the global temperature rise is greater than 3 degrees Celcius
• Decrease of up to 20% in Cotter catchment
• Flow in Murray—Darling Basin falls by 16-48%
• Southward expansion of Dengue Fever zone to Sydney
• Snow-covered Alpine region to shrink by 22-85%
• Number of Extreme Fire Danger Days to rise by 22-42% by 2020 and 137-221% by 2050.
• Source: The Climate Institute Policy Brief “Climate Impacts and Emmissions Targets” Sept 2008 with thanks to SEE-Change

Another reason these figures matter is because climate change affects the poor the most, while we in Canberra share many privileges, including high levels of education, income and environmental awareness with this great power comes great responsibility, so we need to act.

You will be happy to know that acting to reduce your environmental impact doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact it can save you a lot of money. Today I am going to take you through 10 tips from the Moreland Energy Foundation in Victoria on how to save up to $500 or 30% of your power bill in one year through energy efficiency and conservation. You will find small savings can really add up.

So let’s start with using a quilt and a hot water bottle at night instead of the heater- how much money do you think that would save you over a year? It’s $150
Tip two: You can save a further 5% of your power bill by sealing doors and windows with snakes or weather strips.
Tip three: Ok, everyone knows this one. So how much money do you think you can actually save by changing your light bulbs over? - $110
Tip four: You can reduce your hot water bill by 10% by installing an aerator, and save a further $50 by washing your clothes in cold water.
Tip number five – how much money can you save by installing a water saving shower head – about $50
Tip number six – get rid of the vampires sucking energy through your appliances when they are not switched off at the wall. Standby is not your friend.
Tip seven – insulate your hot water pipes and system. You can literally wrap a blanket around it to save energy.
Tip eight: Reduce your hot water setting to 50 degrees Celsius for more savings
Tip nine: Keep room temp to 24-26 in summer and 18=20 in winter. Any guesses for savings? $90 per year
Lastly, the fridge and freezer should be at four and neg 15 degrees and in a cool place to save 10% per degree you turn them up.

So those are the real money savers. In terms of reducing your impact, here are some extra tips. I apologise if you already know or practice these, but it is good revision.
• Firstly – don’t eat yourself out of house and planet. This is a massive topic, but to summarize very briefly:
• Choose the following:
• Local Organic Unprocessed Less packaged Free Range
• Sustainable seafood (80% of the world’s fish stocks are depleted, 60% of Australian seafood is imported, visit the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s website http://www.amcs.org.au/ and get informed about which species are sustainable and non-sustainable choices)
• Grow your own
• Try having a meat free day once or twice a week.
• According to the Australian Conservation Foundation animal products make up the biggest part of the average person’s eco footprint - 34% to be exact.
• Meat, particularly beef, has a very high environmental impact, using much water and land to produce it, and creating significant greenhouse pollution.
• In fact if you reduce your intake by one 150g serve of red meat each week, you'll save 10,000 litres of water and 300kg of greenhouse pollution in a year.
Now its all very nice to know that we should be choosing our food more carefully from an ethical and environmental point of view, but working out which products to buy in a sea of choice can be difficult. One way to cheat is to understand some of the third party labels that are available on different foods. To make sure you are equipped, I’m going to quiz you on some of the most important eco-labels on food products in Australia.

So does anyone recognise this?

Another tip is to mend, swap and vintage your clothes.
• Producing clothes has a significant environmental impact
• The amount of water used in the production and transport of clothes bought by an average Australian household each year is 150,000 litres
• Buying second hand clothes or repairing old clothes could save much of this water.
• Cotton in particular requires a lot of water and often also uses a lot of chemicals.

In terms of paper and paper products, make sure it always recycled, and you want it post consumer recycled, not pre-consumer recycled. Made in Australia is best – try reflex. Use duplex on your printing and try to print as little as possible.

You can also green your electricity supply through solar panels and/or green power. If you are interested in green power the Australian Religious Response to Climate change has a deal with Jack Green energy that will give $35 to your church if you switch to Green Power. If you would like to go a step further you can still get in on the solar bulk buy for faith groups being organised by SEE Change a grassroots environmental change group. Expressions of interest are due on the 30th of November.

Final tips include sharing with your community, educating yourself, travelling earth consciously, leading by example, getting involved in environmental projects near you and thinking before you buy.

If you would like some help greening your life or your church, there are many groups available to assist – including the ACF, the members of the ACT Conservation Council, the What Would Jesus Buy website and the Uniting Earthweb website which has some awesome stories about other churches and what they have done. And if you can’t find something, just email me and I will point you in the right direction.
So what are you going to change in your life to make it more environmentally friendly?

I will give you five minutes to think of something and then tell the people on your table.

Would anyone like to tell me what they have decided?

It is important to remember that we are not in this alone, and the best way to save the world is by working together. The church greening movement is an exciting and growing movement worldwide. In the UK, and particularly the US church greening is rapidly taking off and gaining a lot of power as hundreds of churches and church leaders become engaged in environmental improvement projects and environmental certification schemes.

Here in Australia, the movement is smaller, but already there are some really exciting stories coming from churches around the country. Currently a new church is being built in the grounds of an environmental education centre in Melbourne for a congregation who are so focused on the environment they chose their new minister for her ability to fit in with that philosophy. Another church in Melbourne, the Port Melbourne Uniting Church is running an eco-project including a community garden which provides food for their outreach programs to the local poor. They were the first church in Australia to achieve the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate and they have many more exciting plans for the future. Another example is St Luke’s Uniting Church in Geelong who achieved a 22% reduction in their energy use last year, and are planning to reduce this by a further 10% this year. In Sydney Project Green Church at Maroubra Junction Uniting Church have been running their exciting program for years and closer to home we have the community garden at O’Connor UC, some exciting greening work at the Greenhills Camp and Conference centre and the solar panels recently installed my home church at Kippax.

My contribution to the growth of the church greening movement in Australia is through running the pilots in Canberra and Melbourne of a program called the Five Leaf Eco-Awards. The awards are an ecumenical church greening program designed to inspire and assist churches in achieving environmental goals. These goals relate not only to the church’s buildings, but also to their worship, the actions of their congregation, their outreach programs and their leadership in the local community. The program offers a Basic Certificate and five advanced Leaf Awards in each of the areas of focus just mentioned. For example, the basic certificate requires a church to conduct an energy Energy Audit of their premises,
• Take 3 steps to reduce your energy use
• Run 2 behaviour campaigns
• Hold an environment themed worship service
• Provide 2 resources to help your congregation reduce the impact of their own lives
• Host an outreach event with an environmental theme
• Complete a special project to show your dedication

It is my hope and dream that one day all churches will embrace the care of creation as part of their worship and service of God and in response to His call. I challenge you to start by greening your own lives, and working together as a church to lead others into a more faithful relationship with God through their care of the environment.
Thanks.

Rapid ice loss found in survey supports trend to summer ice free Arctic within decade

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_carbon_energy/climate_deal/news/?176661/Rapid-ice-loss-found-in-survey-supports-trend-to-summer-ice-free-Arctic-within-decade

Your Action Guide to Copenhagen

WWF has put together a list of 9 things you can do to take effective and meaningful action actions in the run-up to the Climate meeting in Copenhagen. To see these actions visit:
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_carbon_energy/climate_deal/take_action/

Help us try and get action from world leaders in Copenhagen!

Palm Oil Biodiesel, Now With 2000% the Emissions of Fossil Fuels

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/palm-oil-biodiesel-2000-percent-emissions-of-fossil-fuels.php?dcitc=daily_nl

US to give threatened polar bears vast 'critical habitat'

The United States on Thursday announced plans to designate more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, a key step towards increasing protection for the threatened species.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-to-give-threatened-polar-bears-vast-critical-habitat-20091023-hbxy.html

Making your bus ride to church an act of worship

It takes me an hour and a half each way, on two buses, to get to church on Sundays. For most people, this probably seems like a waste of valuable time. We would rather drive to church than go through the trial of catching a bus there. Yet we know that for the sake of the environment we should be catching public transport, riding a bicycle or walking to church. In the times when your church was chosen by the fact it was the closest one to you, it was much easier to take these options. These days, many people chose their church community based on the place that has the best facilities for them, or makes them feel most welcome, which can mean traveling several suburbs away to attend church. This means that the environmental impact of the congregation traveling to church on Sundays begins to give the church quite a large ecological footprint.

If we are going to reduce this footprint however, we need to help people face the prospect of their local bus, tram or train service. I decided to make my trip to and from church part of the service itself. By taking the bus, I am worshiping God by caring for creation; but I can also use the time to deepen my relationship with the creator. In our busy schedules today, it can be hard to find time to spend with God, which is why I find this time on the bus very useful. On the bus, I feel less compelled to be 'busy', because I am actually already achieving something by sitting there. This gives me the time to find some peace with God. Here are some of my favourite things to do on the bus:

1. Pray for myself, my family, my work, the world, the environment, endangered species
2. Read my Green Bible
3. Listen to my local Christian radio station (try not to sing out loud)
4. Read a devotional or a Christian book
5. Watch God's creation go past and pray for it
6. Pray for the people in the bus, and those we pass in the street
7. Listen to an audio version of the Bible
8. Catch up on the reflections from my church newsletter for the week
9. Look up this week's Bible reading and read the chapters around it
10.Think about the sermon you have just heard and think about how you can apply what you learnt to your own life

Use these techniques to make the bus ride part of the service and the ride will be over before you know it. You might even wish it was longer. If you do, try catching the bus to work using the same technique.

Getting closer to God and saving the planet - what do you have to lose?

Christian Living Series - Saving the Earth: Justice, Kindness and Humility

Christians can make great environmentalists. The Bible’s teachings on the environment and how we should live as Christians help us to move beyond the (crisis motivated) sustainability ethics that have evolved around climate change. Instead, these teachings move us towards a different way of thinking and acting; one based on humility, kindness and justice for all creation.

In Micah 6, when the Israelites ask God what was required of them, the reply was “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 NRSV
This verse has inspired many to work for the poor, and to improve the treatment of other men. But the verse can also be applied to our treatment of the natural world and all its creatures.

From an environmental point of view the world is not a very just place. The rich and the powerful are free to pollute and degrade the environment, while the poor suffer the consequences. We have seen it time and time again: large companies building factories in poor suburbs or towns where the children begin getting sick; mining companies destroying the land and livelihoods of local people; oil spills caused by badly maintained ships destroying local fishing industries; free riders causing the tragedy of the commons; and now climate change forcing the poor out of their homes while the rich continue to blithely pollute.

Climate change will always affect the poor the most. The rich might have some buffer from increasing droughts, natural disasters and rising sea levels, but the poor have none. Already 3000 Tuvaluans have been forced to become environmental refugees by the rising sea levels on their low lying pacific island. Millions in Bangladesh and other pacific countries may face the same fate. These people have contributed very little to the problem, yet they will still suffer the consequences.

So, if we are to ‘do justice’ we must stop allowing the poor to pay for our comfort. We must consider whether it is just that Australians have an ecological footprint so large we would need four planets to support everyone in the world, at the same standard of living. If it is not, Christians and the church must act together to help reduce our impact on the earth. As well as reducing our energy use, this means reducing our use of water so everyone has access; reducing our use of pesticides and production of waste so we aren’t polluting the areas others have to live in; making ethical purchasing decisions so we are not buying things we don’t need, and so we are not contributing to slavery, sweatshops, unfair trade or the production of products like blood diamonds.

To ‘love kindness’ we need to move beyond the fight against injustice and add compassion for the creatures we share this world with. Loving kindness is about fighting against the unspeakable cruelty of trades like that in bear bile – where a steel tubes is inserted through the muscles of a live bear, kept in a tiny cage for its entire life, to drain their bile for traditional medicine- and shark finning – where a shark is captured, has its fins cut off and is tossed back in the ocean, alive, to drown slowly and painful y. Loving kindness means supporting the work of groups like wildlife rescue; means catching and releasing the moths that fly into your house instead of killing them; and means having a bird bath or feeder in your church grounds during a drought. It means planting nectar bushes in your garden for birds, butterflies and bees; working to preserve animal habitats; and volunteering to help a local endangered species. These actions might seem small and insignificant, but they add up. After all, as Mother Teresa once said – “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in an ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

Finally, we must ‘walk humbly’ with our God; and this can be the hardest step. It is time that humanity stops clinging like a child to the idea of our superiority over the rest of creation. God has made humanity his stewards to care for the earth, and we, God’s children, must reveal ourselves through our obedience and work for the redemption of creation. We must remember that we are not defined by our possessions, but by our relationship with God. It is in God that we are to find peace and security. When Jesus came to earth he did not insist on wearing the latest fashions or keeping up with the Joneses. Instead he chose to come to the world as a poor carpenter. He got around by walking, or riding on the colt of a donkey – the lowliest transport available. Jesus was unconcerned by money and appearances. I think he who told us not to worry about our clothing, would have been horrified by the idea of the suffering of both people and the environment that tends to go into our clothes and belongings today. In today’s world, Jesus’ is a challenging example.

Humility is an unpopular word in today’s society. Somehow pride, greed and ambition have ceased to be sins and become virtues. In a world that worships the rich and powerful, would we recognise Jesus? And if we did, would we abuse his creation for our own gain?

Living as a Christian gives us many opportunities to care for God’s creation. By reflecting on God’s words, we can learn to act in a way that is more in harmony with nature, and with God’s will and purpose. In spite of the ecological crisis; if practiced faithfully maybe justice, kindness and humility are the keys to saving us all.

New Series - Saving the Environment through faithful Christian Living

Hi Everyone,

I am starting a new series of Bible Studies to explore how living faithfully as a Christian and following the teachings of the Bible on how we should live our lives can also make our actions more environmentally friendly. I hope you find this series exciting and inspiring, and that it helps you to understand the harmony between Christian faith and caring for the environment.

Jessica

Christian Ecology Link prayer topic for today

The UN Climate Change Conference meets in Copenhagen from December 7th to 18th to finalise a new treaty for the global reduction of carbon emissions. Many organisations are creating petitions to world leaders and raising awareness. “TckTckTck” is an unprecedented alliance of NGOs, trade unions, faith groups and individuals calling for an ambitious, fair and binding climate agreement. It aggregates data from all the petitions to present to world leaders as evidence of the support they will have in making the right deal. Contacts: www.tcktcktck.org www.sealthedeal2009.org www.hopenhagen.org www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-wave

Ribbon cut at first Qld solar power station

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/16/2715794.htm

Animal sanctuary in the cemetery

CENTENNIAL Park is a natural haven for more than 30 species of native animals including birds, koalas, possums, fish, lizards and tortoises - and a revegetation program aims to attract more.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26215603-2682,00.html?from=public_rss

Botanists bank 10pc of world's plants

BOTANISTS at Britain's Kew Gardens have collected seeds from 10 per cent of the world's wild plants, their first goal in a project to protect all endangered plant species.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26217086-12335,00.html

Gates pledges $120m to overseas farmers

Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday announced $US120 million ($A131.25 million) in grants to help small-scale farmers in Africa and India improve their lives through sustainable agriculture.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/gates-pledges-120m-to-overseas-farmers-20091016-gzuf.html

Christian Ecology Link prayer topic for today

A poll of 8,000 adults by YouGov found that 80% of people would consider recycling more, while 33% might use public transport more. The cost of running a car, fears about congestion, faster and more reliable buses and trains were all more likely to persuade people to use public transport than any fears about air pollution or climate change. Top of people’s priority problems was the state of the economy followed by fear of crime, the state of the NHS, the education system and levels of taxation. Environmental issues were below all of them. The findings provoke questions about the wisdom of promoting “environment” as an issue in itself when the real issue may be the impact of ever more people on diminishing resources.

Nature makes people more caring

http://www.gmagazine.com.au/news/1629/nature-makes-people-more-caring

Eco-Justice Sunday Speech given at Kippax Uniting Church on Sunday

From an environmental point of view the world is not a very just place. The rich and the powerful are free to pollute and degrade the environment, while the poor suffer the consequences. We have seen it time and time again: large companies building factories in poor suburbs or towns where the children begin getting sick; mining companies destroying the land and livelihoods of local people; oil spills caused by badly maintained ships destroying local fishing industries; free riders causing the tragedy of the commons; and now climate change forcing the poor out of their homes while the rich continue to blithely pollute.
While the rich can afford to enjoy their environments, the poor just have to live in them, no matter how degraded they are. But the rich are also more detached from their environments, and less affected by their degradation than the poor, who rely on the environment for everything. If you are a poor person in rural Africa, the environment is your bathroom, your toilet, your drinking tap, your supermarket, your energy supply and your home. A degraded environment means a reduction in your standard of living. A Kenyan Journalist, Calestous Juma, tells the story:
“Africa is full of lonely peasants; millions of people alienated from one another by the destruction of nature... Forests recede day after day and the peasants walk farther and farther for firewood. As rivers and springs dry up more often, they walk farther and farther for water. As the land gets degraded, the lonely peasant toils only to harvest less year after year...Lamentation alone does not provide enough insight of the predicament of the lonely peasants. When nature recedes, so do the prospects for their well-being. Those threads that tie the peasants to nature are too deep-rooted; their disruption leaves severe wounds on the health and collective consciousness of the people. The lonely peasant is a grim reminder to the rest of humanity of the ultimate implications of a lonely planet.”

As this quote indicates, the health of poor and the environment are directly related. In the words of Gordon Aeschliman from the Green Bible “Serving God’s creation and doing justice for the poor are inseparable missions in today’s world. Said another way, to hurt the earth is to hurt the poor; to serve the earth is to serve the poor. It shouldn’t be surprising that creation and justice are inextricably linked...Just as keeping God’s creation sits within the original mission given to humans, compassion and justice for the poor sit at the core of our faith tradition.”
He goes on to talk of how “When asked what he’d do if he knew God was coming back tomorrow, the theologian Martin Luther responded that he’d plant a tree. There is something wonderfully hopeful and pure about that response. He understood that tending God’s good earth was itself a high act of spiritual worship, an act of faith that honoured the possession of the Lord. If it’s true that to hurt the earth is to hurt the poor, it is also true that being kind to the earth is being kind to the poor. Every time we save another acre of rain forest, clean up another river, recycle another bottle, say no to another frivolous purchase, we are serving God’s creation and we are serving the poor.”
Climate change will always affect the poor the most. The rich might have some buffer from increasing droughts, natural disasters and rising sea levels, but the poor have none. Already 3000 Tuvaluans have been forced to become environmental refugees by the rising sea levels on their low lying pacific island. Millions in other pacific countries and places like Bangladesh may face the same fate. These people have contributed very little to the problem, yet they will still suffer the consequences.
One man who understood justice and injustice was William Wilberforce. The great Christian hero who led the fight for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire also saw the link between justice for humanity and for animals. When he wasn’t working on abolition or introducing a raft of other improvements to schools, workplaces and jails, he was working on his other great achievement – the foundation of the RSPCA. Visitors to his home were often amused by his collection of pets, such as hares and parrots, which he rescued and rehabilitated. Amazing Grace, the movie describing his life, begins with a sick Wilberforce stopping his carriage and getting out in the pouring rain to prevent two men, by the side of the road, whipping their horse to death. Another scene in the movie portrays him getting in some trouble with his frantic cooks due to his inability to turn away beggars from the door when they asked for a meal.
We have seen this example also in St Francis of Assisi, famous both for his care of the poor and his love of animals.
Proverbs 31:8-9 says “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy”
As St Francis and William Wilberforce recognised, eco-justice is about more than saving the environment for the sake of the poor or humanity. Who, after all, cannot speak more than the animals?
Brian D. McLaren says “Advocate for creation everywhere. Birds don't get to vote. Neither do streams or salamanders. Corporations are given legal status and protection, but forests aren't (maybe they should be?). If birds and soil and trees and wind are going to be given a voice in life-and-death decisions made by humans, people like you and me are going to have to add-our-voice (advocate) on their behalf. That voice will speak in voting, but also in church, and in the office and classroom, and around the dinner table. We can't just speak with a kind of guilt-inducing duty ... we must also speak with love. Because we love people and other creatures who live in desertifying areas, we must speak up and deal with global climate change. Because we love people and creatures who live in areas devastated by mountaintop removal, we must speak up for protecting the mountains. Because we love the spring peepers and spotted salamanders, we must speak up when another shopping mall is going to bury another vernal pool.”
How we treat animals tells much about two things: how we will treat other men, and how we see God.
St Francis of Assisi said of its reflection on the treatment of men “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” Leonardo da Vinci went even further, saying “The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.” Personally, I look forward to that day.

On the way we see God, Saint Birgitta said “Let a man fear, above all, me, his God, and so much the gentler will he become toward my creatures and animals, on whom, on account of me, their Creator, he ought to have compassion.” While T.S. Lewis stated “A wrong attitude to nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God.”
An injustice that is close to my heart is that of conservation based on men’s values – where a species is deemed worthy of conservation only if it has a use for man, or if it is sufficiently cute and cuddly to stir compassion. Because of this, thousands of reptile, fish and insect killings are ignored while vast resources are pumped into saving dolphins and pandas. What hope then, is there for the ugly creatures whom God loves just as much?
If we are to ‘do justice,’ as we are commanded in Micah 6:8 we must stop allowing the poor to pay for our comfort. We must consider whether it is just that Australians have an ecological footprint so large we would need four planets to support everyone in the world at the same standard of living. If it is not, we must act together to help reduce our impact on the earth. As well as reducing our energy use, this means reducing our use of water so that everyone has access; reducing our use of pesticides and production of waste so we aren’t polluting the areas others have to live in; and making ethical purchasing decisions so we are not buying things we don’t need, and so we are not contributing to slavery, sweatshops, unfair trade or the production of products like blood diamonds.
We, as the church, have a wealth of opportunity to become a part of something very important. Christians can make great environmentalists. The Bible’s teachings on the environment and how we should live as Christians help us to move beyond the (crisis motivated) sustainability ethics that have evolved around climate change. By reflecting on God’s words, we can learn to act in a way that is more in harmony with nature, and with God’s will and purpose. These teachings move us toward a different way of thinking and acting; one based on humility, kindness and justice for all creation.

Eco- Justice is something we should all work for in our own lives, as families and in the community, but it is also something we should work together for as a church. In this journey, there will be as many ways of becoming a greener and more just church as there are churches, but this is how I imagine it:

It’s Sunday morning so I drag myself out of bed and ride my bike to church. As I enter the solar panels on the roof glint in the sun and I can see the water tank peeking around the side. I am greeted by a smiling face and handed a newssheet printed on recycled paper. I flick to the environmental tips and events section and scan the offerings. I move to a table to place some native flowers and a box of fruit from my garden on it for distribution. I grab a cup of Fairtrade coffee and sit in the sun to enjoy the building’s passive heating. In worship we sing thanks to God for the wonders of creation and as it is September and we are doing the Season of Creation we have an interesting sermon about the need to follow Biblical practices and values in our lives in order to reduce our environmental impact. When we share communion it is with tasty, freshly baked bread from organic flour and environmentally friendly grape juice. The gentle light of beeswax candles and sunlight lights the scene.
In our prayers for others our weekly endangered species prayer is for the endangered frogs we had a talk about at the youth meeting on Friday. We also thank God for the way he has blessed and added to our church through our environmental work. After the service I pack up my copy of the Green Bible and join the communal lunch. Fresh, local, vegetarian food abounds and is shared with the homeless. After the meal I go to check on the animals in our special rescue room. We have an arrangement with the local wildlife rescue network whereby our church gives carers a day off each week by caring for their charges. We also provide food, money and sew little pouches for the various marsupial orphans. I quickly make a couple of arrangements for the clothes and tool swap next week on the way out. I meet up with the church greening group and we head out to Greenhills Camp and Conference Centre for a working bee. Our Canberra Christian Environmental Action group is going quite well, with our church teams and local conservation groups making quite a difference around Canberra by dedicating a few hours per week. It is a testament to the way the church has now taken leadership in the environmental arena.
Ok, so I’m dreaming. Yet I have not mentioned anything that is not possible, nor anything that could not, in theory, be started today. The church could, and I think should, lead the future development of the environmental movement, and I would like churches like Kippax to be a part of that.
After all, here in our presbytery where we have a highly educated population, with one of the highest incomes per capita in the country, and also one of the highest levels of awareness of environmental issues. These privileges come with a responsibility to lead the country in environmental efforts.
Helping churches like Kippax is why I started the Five Leaf Eco-Awards. An ecumenical church greening award program, Five Leaf is my contribution to the growth of the exciting church greening movement in Australia. In the UK, and particularly the US church greening is rapidly taking off and gaining a lot of power as hundreds of churches and church leaders become engaged in environmental improvement projects and environmental certification schemes. Here in Australia, the movement is smaller, but already there are some really exciting stories coming from churches around the country. Currently a new church is being built in the grounds of an environmental education centre in Melbourne for a congregation who are so focused on the environment they chose their new minister for her ability to fit in with that philosophy. Another church in Melbourne, the Port Melbourne Uniting Church is running an eco-project including a community garden which provides food for their outreach programs to the local poor. They were the first church in Australia to achieve the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate and they have many more exciting plans for the future. Another example is St Luke’s Uniting Church in Geelong who achieved a 22% reduction in their energy use last year, and are planning to reduce this by a further 10% this year. In Sydney Project Green Church at Maroubra Junction Uniting Church have been running their exciting program for years and closer to home we have the community garden at O’Connor UC, some exciting greening work at the Greenhills Camp and Conference centre and of course, the solar panels recently installed here at Kippax.
If you are interested in getting involved with prayer, action or joining the Kippax church greening group please let me know. It’s going to be an exciting journey, and in the end we will have a more just world for all.
Improving eco-justice isn’t hard, but it can require a little thinking and change. So, how are you going to make the world a more just place today?