Anniversary
7 years ago
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Top Ten Things to Think About If You Want to Change the World
Check out this great article by Michael Angier at http://www.positivepath.net/ideasMA11.asp
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Quote of the Day
“One major consequence of this human-centered cultural bias is already implicit in the above. If industry pollutes our favourite stream, poor logging practices destroy vital salmon habitat, or CFCs deplete the ozone layer, we say we have environmental problems. We “externalize the issue (to use the economists’ unconsciously revealing term). There is little real appreciation that the problem – and ultimately the solution – resides within us. Indeed, when we do act to improve matters, the frequent response is a technical fix aimed at enabling society to carry on pretty much as before. Stream contaminated? Build a swimming pool and chlorinate the drinking water (or import it in bottles from France). Fishery in trouble? “Fix” nature by building a hatchery."
Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development by Robert F. Wollard, Aleck S. Ostry, UBC Press, 2000 p22
Friday, August 27, 2010
Building your church greening program? Build your people
This article may be about building your business, but it applies to church greening just as well. To create the change we have to build our people.
See the article by Catherine Palin-Brinkworth at:
http://www.positivepath.net/ideasCP4.asp
See the article by Catherine Palin-Brinkworth at:
http://www.positivepath.net/ideasCP4.asp
Friday, August 20, 2010
Ten Top Tips for Leaders
Creating change requires good leadership. If you are the leader of your church green group, or even just a member, the tips below might be useful in improving your own leadership and helping to bring the rest of the church along with you on the sustainability journey.
1. Know yourself
2. Know the purpose of your leadership
3. Know your domain holistically
4. Create clarity and focus
5. Ensure capability
6. Be fully present
7. Ensure alignment
8. Establish and maintain the standards
9. Build bridges
10. Face reality and deal with what you find
See the full article by Sarah Cornally at:
http://www.positivepath.net/ideasSC4.asp
1. Know yourself
2. Know the purpose of your leadership
3. Know your domain holistically
4. Create clarity and focus
5. Ensure capability
6. Be fully present
7. Ensure alignment
8. Establish and maintain the standards
9. Build bridges
10. Face reality and deal with what you find
See the full article by Sarah Cornally at:
http://www.positivepath.net/ideasSC4.asp
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Quote of the day
Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.
Norman Vincent Peale
Norman Vincent Peale
Monday, August 16, 2010
Getting our hands dirty with prayer
At Kippax Uniting Church yesterday in our interactive service we were discussing the things that are wrong with the world and the reassurance of hope. As part of the service we put some new indoor plants for the foyer into pots. These plants are to be a symbol of hope as we walk past each week, and the act of planting them was our prayer. I really enjoyed watching the activity. Everyone was bustling around in their gardening gloves, working as a team to get the plants out of their old pots and into the new ones, fill the pots with potting mix and water them. Older church members worked with the youngest members of the congregation, everyone on their knees together (it was a great photo opportunity). Both those who regularly garden and those who rarely do exchanged ideas and got the job done. It was uplifting to see. But there was one thing, for me, which really stood out. A small girl walked past me talking to something on her glove. She had picked up a tiny spider and was calming it with her voice while she calmly took it outside. My heart warmed. To see such kindness and empathy in a child towards a creature many hate or fear was uplifting. This is what I want to see in the future - a world where everyone cares for even the tiniest and least lovable creatures as much as they do themselves and each other.
For those who would like to repeat this activity, you will need:
- Sheets to protect the floor
- Pots
- Trays for under the pots
- Jugs of water
- Potting Mix
- Gardening gloves
- Plants
- People
For those who would like to repeat this activity, you will need:
- Sheets to protect the floor
- Pots
- Trays for under the pots
- Jugs of water
- Potting Mix
- Gardening gloves
- Plants
- People
Friday, August 6, 2010
Reflections on intervening in systems
I wanted to share some reflections on an interesting reading I recently had for Sustainability Marketing at uni. The article is called 'Places to Intervene in a System' by Donnella H. Meadows (Whole Earth, Winter 1997).
The article discusses leverage points (places in a complex system where a small shift in one thing can create big changes in everything) and how we often tend to intuitively find them, but then push them in the wrong way (because complex systems are often counter-intuitive). For example:
"Asked by the Club of Rome to show how major global problems - poverty and hunger, environmental destruction, resource depletion, urban deterioration, unemployment - are related and how they might be solved, Forrester came out with a clear leverage point: Growth. Both population and economic growth.
Growth has costs - among which are poverty and hunger, environmental destruction - the whole list of problems we are trying to solve with growth!
The world's leaders are currently fixated on economic growth as the answer to virtually all problems, but they're pushing with all their might in the wrong direction."
The article then goes on to discuss 10 places to intervene in a system, in ascending order of importance:
9. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards)
8. Material stocks and flows
7. Regulating negative feedback loops
6. Driving positive feedback loops
5. Information flows
4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints)
3. The power of self-organisation
2. The goals of the system
1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, feedback structure arise
0. The power to transcend paradigms
Here are some of the points I found interesting:
We put 95% of our attention into numbers, but they actually don't have a lot of power. Parameters are important, but they rarely change behaviour.
The most important numbers can be the length of the delay in a feedback loop. Delays in negative feedback loops cause oscillations. "If you're trying to adjust a system state to your goal, but you only receive delayed information about what the system state is, you will overshoot and undershoot." Hence, large central planning systems like General Motors or the Soviet Union function poorly. Too long delays can eventually cause overshoot and collapse.The tragedy of the commons is collapsing the world's commercial fisheries because there is no feedback between the state of the fish population and the decision to invest in fishing vessels. "Contrary to economic opinion, the price of fish doesn't provide that feedback. As the fish get more scarce and hence more expensive, it becomes all the more profitable to go out and catch them. That's a perverse feedback, a positive loop that leads to collapse."
Self-organisation is evolution within systems. It is the ability to change any of the aspects of a system lower on the list above.
"Self-organization seems so wondrous that we tend to regard it as mysterious, miraculous. Economists often model technology as literal manna from heaven - coming from nowhere, costing nothing, increasing the productivity of an economy by some steady percent each year. For centuries people have regarded the spectacular variety of nature with the same awe. Only a divine creator could bring forth such a creation.
In fact the divine creator does not have to produce miracles. He, she, or it just has to write clever RULES FOR SELF-ORGANIZATION. These rules govern how, where, and what the system can add onto or subtract from itself under what conditions."
"When you understand the power of self-organization, you begin to understand why biologists worship biodiversity even more than economist worship technology. The widely varied stock of DNA, evolved and accumulated over billions of years, is the source of evolutionary potential, just as science libraries and labs and scientists are the source of technological potential. Allowing species to go extinct is a systems crime, just as randomly eliminating all copies of particular science journals, or particular types of scientists, would be."
Rules change behaviour, so power over them is real power.
"If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them.
That's why my systems intuition was sending off alarm bells as the new world trade system was explained to me. It is a system with rules designed by corporations, run by corporations, for the benefit of corporations. Its rules exclude almost any feedback from other sectors of society. Most of its meetings are closed to the press (no information, no feedback). It forces nations into positive loops, competing with each other to weaken environmental and social safeguards in order to attract corporate investment. It's a recipe for unleashing "success to the successful" loops.
"People within systems don't often recognize what whole-system goal they are serving. To make profits, most corporations would say, but that's just a rule, a necessary condition to stay in the game. What is the point of the game? to grow, to increase market share, to bring the world (customers, suppliers, regulators) more under the control of the corporation, so that its operations become ever more shielded from uncertainty. That's the goal of a cancer cell too and of every living population. It's only a bad one when it isn't countered by higher-level negative feedback loops with goals of keeping the system in balance. The goal of keeping the market competitive has to trump the goal of each corporation to eliminate its competitors. The goal of keeping populations in balance and evolving has to trump the goal of each population to commandeer all resources into its own metabolism."
Systems are sourced from paradigms. Paradigms create the information flows, goals, stocks, flows and feedbacks in a system.
People who manage to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally transforms systems.
How do you change paradigms? Basically:
- you keep pointing out the failures and anomomolies of the old one
- you come from the new one (with assurance and loudly)
- you insert people with the new paradigm in positions of power and public visibility
- you ignore reactionaries
- you spend time with active change agents and the open minded middle-ground
- and/or model the system so you can see it as a whole
The highest leverage of all is to realise that NO paradigm is true. This frees you to simply chose one which suits your purpose. "If you have no idea where to get a purpose, you can listen to the universe (or put the name of your favorite deity here) and do his, her, its will, which is a lot better informed than your will."
"The higher the leverage point, the more the system resists changing it - that's why societies rub out truly enlightened beings."
Most of these it is pretty obvious why I found them interesting and thought you might too. I just want to say something quickly about paradigms. Basically, this is why a passionate conservationist and environmentalist like me, who wants to save the world, is interested in the development of Christian eco-theology and church greening. One of my concerns about the current movement towards sustainability and greening is that we are trying to find ways of reducing our environmental impact without changing the system or paradigm within which we are operating. Since this system and paradigm is flawed and ultimately unable to create a truly sustainable world, this becomes a problem. I am not promoting going back to living in caves or saying we should have a revolution and throw capitalism out the window, but we need to begin thinking more deeply about what we are doing. For example, one of the big fads at the moment is green products. For example, let's say a little figurine made from wood that is given out to people as a promotional product with the company's logo on it. It can be called 'green' because it is not made from plastic, wood is a renewable resource, and it is biodegradable. But think about this a little more. Just because it is a renewable resource doesn't mean it is sustainable. I didn't say anything about it being Forest Stewardship Council Certified, made from bamboo, or being from a non-rainforest source. It could be made from illegally traded rainforest hardwoods and have robbed animals of homes and the local people of income. It is also a promotional figurine - which means that it serves no practical purpose and many of the people who receive it will simply throw it in the bin (where it will go to landfill, release methane and contribute to climate change). While it is better than a plastic promotional figurine, it is still operating within the same wasteful and destructive system.
In addition, the company it is made to promote may be using it as part of a greenwashing campaign. If the figurine serves its purpose and makes the consumer purchase the company's products, they may then be contributing to another destructive cycle of production.
Some green products are great, but moving towards an eco-friendly future is not about switching to having more 'green' things, it is about shifting the paradigm to having less things, but perhaps more sharing and community and biodiversity instead.
I believe people of faith and eco-theology will have a large role in designing and promoting a new paradigm and new systems, systems that are ecologically redeemed and renewed and able to create a future for all of God's creation. Thus, this is where I am trying to intervene in the system. It's a lot more difficult than just shifting to a slightly greener version of the current system, so there will be more resistance, but the results will be worth it.
The article discusses leverage points (places in a complex system where a small shift in one thing can create big changes in everything) and how we often tend to intuitively find them, but then push them in the wrong way (because complex systems are often counter-intuitive). For example:
"Asked by the Club of Rome to show how major global problems - poverty and hunger, environmental destruction, resource depletion, urban deterioration, unemployment - are related and how they might be solved, Forrester came out with a clear leverage point: Growth. Both population and economic growth.
Growth has costs - among which are poverty and hunger, environmental destruction - the whole list of problems we are trying to solve with growth!
The world's leaders are currently fixated on economic growth as the answer to virtually all problems, but they're pushing with all their might in the wrong direction."
The article then goes on to discuss 10 places to intervene in a system, in ascending order of importance:
9. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards)
8. Material stocks and flows
7. Regulating negative feedback loops
6. Driving positive feedback loops
5. Information flows
4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment, constraints)
3. The power of self-organisation
2. The goals of the system
1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals, rules, feedback structure arise
0. The power to transcend paradigms
Here are some of the points I found interesting:
We put 95% of our attention into numbers, but they actually don't have a lot of power. Parameters are important, but they rarely change behaviour.
The most important numbers can be the length of the delay in a feedback loop. Delays in negative feedback loops cause oscillations. "If you're trying to adjust a system state to your goal, but you only receive delayed information about what the system state is, you will overshoot and undershoot." Hence, large central planning systems like General Motors or the Soviet Union function poorly. Too long delays can eventually cause overshoot and collapse.The tragedy of the commons is collapsing the world's commercial fisheries because there is no feedback between the state of the fish population and the decision to invest in fishing vessels. "Contrary to economic opinion, the price of fish doesn't provide that feedback. As the fish get more scarce and hence more expensive, it becomes all the more profitable to go out and catch them. That's a perverse feedback, a positive loop that leads to collapse."
Self-organisation is evolution within systems. It is the ability to change any of the aspects of a system lower on the list above.
"Self-organization seems so wondrous that we tend to regard it as mysterious, miraculous. Economists often model technology as literal manna from heaven - coming from nowhere, costing nothing, increasing the productivity of an economy by some steady percent each year. For centuries people have regarded the spectacular variety of nature with the same awe. Only a divine creator could bring forth such a creation.
In fact the divine creator does not have to produce miracles. He, she, or it just has to write clever RULES FOR SELF-ORGANIZATION. These rules govern how, where, and what the system can add onto or subtract from itself under what conditions."
"When you understand the power of self-organization, you begin to understand why biologists worship biodiversity even more than economist worship technology. The widely varied stock of DNA, evolved and accumulated over billions of years, is the source of evolutionary potential, just as science libraries and labs and scientists are the source of technological potential. Allowing species to go extinct is a systems crime, just as randomly eliminating all copies of particular science journals, or particular types of scientists, would be."
Rules change behaviour, so power over them is real power.
"If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them.
That's why my systems intuition was sending off alarm bells as the new world trade system was explained to me. It is a system with rules designed by corporations, run by corporations, for the benefit of corporations. Its rules exclude almost any feedback from other sectors of society. Most of its meetings are closed to the press (no information, no feedback). It forces nations into positive loops, competing with each other to weaken environmental and social safeguards in order to attract corporate investment. It's a recipe for unleashing "success to the successful" loops.
"People within systems don't often recognize what whole-system goal they are serving. To make profits, most corporations would say, but that's just a rule, a necessary condition to stay in the game. What is the point of the game? to grow, to increase market share, to bring the world (customers, suppliers, regulators) more under the control of the corporation, so that its operations become ever more shielded from uncertainty. That's the goal of a cancer cell too and of every living population. It's only a bad one when it isn't countered by higher-level negative feedback loops with goals of keeping the system in balance. The goal of keeping the market competitive has to trump the goal of each corporation to eliminate its competitors. The goal of keeping populations in balance and evolving has to trump the goal of each population to commandeer all resources into its own metabolism."
Systems are sourced from paradigms. Paradigms create the information flows, goals, stocks, flows and feedbacks in a system.
People who manage to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally transforms systems.
How do you change paradigms? Basically:
- you keep pointing out the failures and anomomolies of the old one
- you come from the new one (with assurance and loudly)
- you insert people with the new paradigm in positions of power and public visibility
- you ignore reactionaries
- you spend time with active change agents and the open minded middle-ground
- and/or model the system so you can see it as a whole
The highest leverage of all is to realise that NO paradigm is true. This frees you to simply chose one which suits your purpose. "If you have no idea where to get a purpose, you can listen to the universe (or put the name of your favorite deity here) and do his, her, its will, which is a lot better informed than your will."
"The higher the leverage point, the more the system resists changing it - that's why societies rub out truly enlightened beings."
Most of these it is pretty obvious why I found them interesting and thought you might too. I just want to say something quickly about paradigms. Basically, this is why a passionate conservationist and environmentalist like me, who wants to save the world, is interested in the development of Christian eco-theology and church greening. One of my concerns about the current movement towards sustainability and greening is that we are trying to find ways of reducing our environmental impact without changing the system or paradigm within which we are operating. Since this system and paradigm is flawed and ultimately unable to create a truly sustainable world, this becomes a problem. I am not promoting going back to living in caves or saying we should have a revolution and throw capitalism out the window, but we need to begin thinking more deeply about what we are doing. For example, one of the big fads at the moment is green products. For example, let's say a little figurine made from wood that is given out to people as a promotional product with the company's logo on it. It can be called 'green' because it is not made from plastic, wood is a renewable resource, and it is biodegradable. But think about this a little more. Just because it is a renewable resource doesn't mean it is sustainable. I didn't say anything about it being Forest Stewardship Council Certified, made from bamboo, or being from a non-rainforest source. It could be made from illegally traded rainforest hardwoods and have robbed animals of homes and the local people of income. It is also a promotional figurine - which means that it serves no practical purpose and many of the people who receive it will simply throw it in the bin (where it will go to landfill, release methane and contribute to climate change). While it is better than a plastic promotional figurine, it is still operating within the same wasteful and destructive system.
In addition, the company it is made to promote may be using it as part of a greenwashing campaign. If the figurine serves its purpose and makes the consumer purchase the company's products, they may then be contributing to another destructive cycle of production.
Some green products are great, but moving towards an eco-friendly future is not about switching to having more 'green' things, it is about shifting the paradigm to having less things, but perhaps more sharing and community and biodiversity instead.
I believe people of faith and eco-theology will have a large role in designing and promoting a new paradigm and new systems, systems that are ecologically redeemed and renewed and able to create a future for all of God's creation. Thus, this is where I am trying to intervene in the system. It's a lot more difficult than just shifting to a slightly greener version of the current system, so there will be more resistance, but the results will be worth it.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Earth Hour 2010 Speech by Christopher Golding
Here is the sermon from a beautiful Earth Hour service I attended at St Paul's Anglican Church Manuka, Canberra.
Gen 1 – 2.3
INTRO - FAILURE
My heart sank as I read another news report. Another set of dire predictions, another set of human failures. I had sat down to read about the recent Copenhagen accord, and was attempting to get my head around what had happened: Who, what , when, how? I had so many questions. My eyes danced over the page:
Goals dropped, Copenhagen ends in failure AND another Copenhagen limps to a ‘cowardly’ end
My questions were met with disappointment and sadness. Ultimately it was then I truly understood that no mere human solution could be found to the immense challenges facing this planet.
HOPE in UNITY
Now it might seem strange then, that amidst my feelings of sadness, I found reason for hope: a hope found in the fact that we are not alone.
Despite the human failures so clearly visible; despite the complexities and challenges raised by climate change and global warming, we are given hope freely – - hope that is found in the creative work of God.
Tonight we participate in that hope. During Earth Hour, over 1billion people, 4000 cities and 88 countries tonight proclaim as one:
We care for the created order and we can make a difference!
That we stand together is no accident. Tonight the ever-present Spirit of God unites people around the world for a common purpose; the preservation of the earth. The Christian Scriptures shared with us this evening, testify to this common purpose. These Scriptures reveal God as a God of creation, a God of hope, a God of empowerment.
SCRIPTURE
In the beginning - GOD. In the beginning - darkness and chaos. In the beginning the Spirit, moving over the waters like an ever-present wind. And then: God speaks. God’s word, God’s breath, speaks into darkness and chaos, the creative Spirit is summoned. Light and hope are called forth into being.
God’s creative action is God’s word. God is identified as the creative God who gives the creative word freely and purposefully. Action and creative result are one and cannot be separated.
In the rhythmic narrative that follows, God’s creative being is expressed over and over again through God’s speech. God gives new life again and again in a self-giving action of creative love. God again and again endorses and affirms creation freely given: and God saw that it was good.
The creative speech continues, and we see God’s self-giving in a way that is almost unimaginable. The Creator God of Father and Spirit gives of themselves saying:
Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.
Human beings are created and empowered in one life-giving breath. Fashioned and made in the image of God. God’s self is again freely given, but here, in a unique and special way. The biblical narrative repeats this for emphasis and says:
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Of course, we are not made gods, but here God gives us God’s very image, God’s very likeness.
God blesses humankind, empowering them, and endorsing them.
However there is something more: God links the unique power and position of humanity to unique responsibilities, and unique tasks.
Humanity is told to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Sadly, the original meaning of these words has often been mistaken. Here the original Hebrew expresses complex and unique meaning.
Kabas, translated “subdue”, focuses on the natural earth, on cultivation and production. Here subdue refers to development in and of the creative order, not domination. God gives humanity the responsibility for the soil of the earth for the benefit of the whole created order.
Rada, translated “dominion”, must be understood in terms of caregiving, even nurturing, not exploitation. God gives humanity the responsibility of being loving leaders and faithfully stewards of the earth for the benefit of all created things.
Here the unique power given to humankind cannot be separated from our specifically God-given responsibility. Human beings are called by God’s word to participate in God’s creation. Humanity is called to give freely to the world, giving it space, and enabling its fullest possible potential.
Made in the image of God, human beings are called to relate to the nonhuman as God relates to them. God gives and God creates purposefully and lovingly; God calls us to do the same.
CONCLUSION
Tonight we are united in hope. In the aftermath of Copenhagen, we stand in the shadow of human failure but in the light of God’s unending love.
Tonight we are reminded that we do not fight for this planet alone.
Tonight we are reminded of the unifying and creative power of the Spirit. Tonight we are reminded that we are made in the image of God, uniquely created as part of God’s self-giving love.
We see that in this empowering love we are given the supreme responsibility, to be stewards of this beautiful earth and to care for all creation.
In this responsibility we are called not just to action, we are called to embrace the very selves we have been created to be.
We are called to live and to pray not out of despair, but out of hope: to think, act and exist as beacons of God’s light in the world.
Let us embrace our calling, unified by the Spirit, empowered in our likeness of God, and sustained by God’s generous and ultimately victorious love. For in this - our calling - we can and we will make a difference.
Gen 1 – 2.3
INTRO - FAILURE
My heart sank as I read another news report. Another set of dire predictions, another set of human failures. I had sat down to read about the recent Copenhagen accord, and was attempting to get my head around what had happened: Who, what , when, how? I had so many questions. My eyes danced over the page:
Goals dropped, Copenhagen ends in failure AND another Copenhagen limps to a ‘cowardly’ end
My questions were met with disappointment and sadness. Ultimately it was then I truly understood that no mere human solution could be found to the immense challenges facing this planet.
HOPE in UNITY
Now it might seem strange then, that amidst my feelings of sadness, I found reason for hope: a hope found in the fact that we are not alone.
Despite the human failures so clearly visible; despite the complexities and challenges raised by climate change and global warming, we are given hope freely – - hope that is found in the creative work of God.
Tonight we participate in that hope. During Earth Hour, over 1billion people, 4000 cities and 88 countries tonight proclaim as one:
We care for the created order and we can make a difference!
That we stand together is no accident. Tonight the ever-present Spirit of God unites people around the world for a common purpose; the preservation of the earth. The Christian Scriptures shared with us this evening, testify to this common purpose. These Scriptures reveal God as a God of creation, a God of hope, a God of empowerment.
SCRIPTURE
In the beginning - GOD. In the beginning - darkness and chaos. In the beginning the Spirit, moving over the waters like an ever-present wind. And then: God speaks. God’s word, God’s breath, speaks into darkness and chaos, the creative Spirit is summoned. Light and hope are called forth into being.
God’s creative action is God’s word. God is identified as the creative God who gives the creative word freely and purposefully. Action and creative result are one and cannot be separated.
In the rhythmic narrative that follows, God’s creative being is expressed over and over again through God’s speech. God gives new life again and again in a self-giving action of creative love. God again and again endorses and affirms creation freely given: and God saw that it was good.
The creative speech continues, and we see God’s self-giving in a way that is almost unimaginable. The Creator God of Father and Spirit gives of themselves saying:
Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.
Human beings are created and empowered in one life-giving breath. Fashioned and made in the image of God. God’s self is again freely given, but here, in a unique and special way. The biblical narrative repeats this for emphasis and says:
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Of course, we are not made gods, but here God gives us God’s very image, God’s very likeness.
God blesses humankind, empowering them, and endorsing them.
However there is something more: God links the unique power and position of humanity to unique responsibilities, and unique tasks.
Humanity is told to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Sadly, the original meaning of these words has often been mistaken. Here the original Hebrew expresses complex and unique meaning.
Kabas, translated “subdue”, focuses on the natural earth, on cultivation and production. Here subdue refers to development in and of the creative order, not domination. God gives humanity the responsibility for the soil of the earth for the benefit of the whole created order.
Rada, translated “dominion”, must be understood in terms of caregiving, even nurturing, not exploitation. God gives humanity the responsibility of being loving leaders and faithfully stewards of the earth for the benefit of all created things.
Here the unique power given to humankind cannot be separated from our specifically God-given responsibility. Human beings are called by God’s word to participate in God’s creation. Humanity is called to give freely to the world, giving it space, and enabling its fullest possible potential.
Made in the image of God, human beings are called to relate to the nonhuman as God relates to them. God gives and God creates purposefully and lovingly; God calls us to do the same.
CONCLUSION
Tonight we are united in hope. In the aftermath of Copenhagen, we stand in the shadow of human failure but in the light of God’s unending love.
Tonight we are reminded that we do not fight for this planet alone.
Tonight we are reminded of the unifying and creative power of the Spirit. Tonight we are reminded that we are made in the image of God, uniquely created as part of God’s self-giving love.
We see that in this empowering love we are given the supreme responsibility, to be stewards of this beautiful earth and to care for all creation.
In this responsibility we are called not just to action, we are called to embrace the very selves we have been created to be.
We are called to live and to pray not out of despair, but out of hope: to think, act and exist as beacons of God’s light in the world.
Let us embrace our calling, unified by the Spirit, empowered in our likeness of God, and sustained by God’s generous and ultimately victorious love. For in this - our calling - we can and we will make a difference.
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