The Rector Writes

Dear Friends

At the harvest festivals in Castleknock and Clonsilla, Fr Eugene Kennedy spoke of our stewardship of God’s world, and the need to act responsibly in caring for our planet. But what does that mean in reality?

Let’s take one example. The city authorities in New Orleans finished their official search for victims of Hurricane Katrina last week. Deaths stand at 964 for New Orleans, together with another 221 for the rest of Louisiana — far fewer than the number feared, but far more than there might have been had preventative measures been taken sooner and more efficiently; for the lesson from the past decade is that deaths from natural phenomena are often preventable. The World Disasters Report 2004 estimated that, worldwide, deaths from all disasters fell from about 75,000 a year before 1998 to 59,000 a year afterwards. The biggest fall has been in deaths from "hydro-meteorological disasters" (hurricanes are lumped in with floods and windstorms in the statistics) because of "better satellite forecasting and early-warning systems". The report was written before the Asian tsunami. In this week’s report the statistics are adjusted upwards and the optimism downwards. Nevertheless, the general principle holds true, as the low casualty figures for Hurricane Rita attest.

The greatest challenges for humankind, however, remain the disasters caused by drought. Famine is not an overnight emergency. Whereas the authorities have just hours to respond to the threat of a hurricane, famine can be predicted weeks, and sometimes months, before its effects are felt. It is the world’s shame that, time and again, too little action is taken too late.

The best precautionary measure is, of course, to tackle the causes of the abnormal temperature fluctuations we are living through. The forces at work are so vast that it is not possible to trace anything back to human activity with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, we already know the mechanisms by which pollution affects the climate. We have multiple examples, across a range of environmental fields, of the effects of global warming. And we have a scientific establishment that is, by and large, convinced that the danger of climate change is real and immediate. The case is strong for action, if only as a precautionary measure.

So why aren’t Christians, of all people, taking action? Recently I took part in an email survey from Christian website just2fish.org asking what parishes were doing to address the environmental crisis. The depressing results published this week suggest that most churches aren’t even the slightest shade of green, for reasons of cost, poor theology, and, most of all, inertia. The fact that the majority of church buildings are hard to heat ought to be an incentive rather than a hindrance, as this is the most expensive and potentially most wasteful element in many church budgets. The motto "living simply that others might simply live" has been used from the early days of the Green movement. As evidence grows of the deadly impact that Western lifestyles are having on the world’s climate, the phrase takes on a new immediacy.

In a survey of 1000 churches of the main Christian denominations, very few said that they were using renewable energy in their buildings. And only 4.7 per cent reported that they had made any changes to either transportation or buildings in order to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. Only 3.7 per cent said that they were planning to review their greenhouse-gas emissions in future. Are there things that we as a group of parishes could be doing? Can some of us walk to church? Or pool cars? An environmental audit for our churches is one exercise we might consider in the next few months.

On a different note, elsewhere in this magazine you will read about the upcoming Parish Open Day on Sunday 13th November. I would urge you to support this if you possibly can. It will be a great showcase for our parish life and a chance for everyone to get involved and enjoy the refreshments. Please do reply to your invitation and join us for a great day.

Yours in Christ

Andrew

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