Riding Mill Parish News #514
As humans and Christians we have a responsiblity to take care of the earth.
My thoughts after Christmas turned to the future, as in common with many of us I looked ahead with hope that this will be a better year than the last.
In common with many, too, I read the news headlines of a ‘cost of living crisis’ and uncapped gas and electricity bills with some trepidation. And I wonder how it will turn out: we shall see.
One thread that will run through the year, and beyond, will be the action as a Church to reduce our carbon emissions.
It will not be the first time that St James’s has grappled with a switch from gas energy to electricity.
I was shown a postcard from 1910 featuring huge gas lamps hanging from the ceiling and on stands, with pulleys and ropes to lower and raise them for lighting. Contrast that with a later (though still very old) view showing the cleaner and less cluttered electric lighting.
Our forebears grappled with the change in technologies and ended with a better, brighter and cleaner solution.
So it is in the same spirit, though for different reasons, that we shall be looking very carefully at our gas heating and plotting a new change in technologies. Where that will lead us, I cannot yet say, but there is an enthusiastic, practical and visionary group working on the possibilities right now.
We live in a time of change, as every generation has probably said since time immemorial: I suspect that Adam and Eve might have said something similar when they were evicted from the Garden of Eden.
The changes that need to be made towards decarbonising the UK economy are becoming clear: a subsidy scheme for heat pumps to replace gas boilers; the development of a better charging network for electric cars and support for their manufacture; the investment in tree-planting and peat restoration; the carbon-capture plans; the greater use of hydrogen, and further investment in renewables.
These are the sorts of incremental changes that are needed to turn a complex economy along a new zero-carbon path.
The book of Genesis does not simply contain old stories of eviction from Paradise. It lays down some challenges around stewardship of the earth’s resources that we must collectively and individually meet. This includes showing the spiritual discipline to use our resources wisely, and to steward the earth with a sense of moral responsibility.
In our times, we have demonstrated plenty of ways in which we can subdue nature.
A central question facing humanity now concerns whether we will exhibit the strength to rein in our desires. For if we do not, we may be taken down by our lack of righteousness.
My prayer this year is that we may summon the strength to conquer our short-term desires, live our individual and collective lives with righteousness, and merit an enlightened stewardship of the planet God created.
Rev’d Diana Johnson
Originally published in the Riding Mill Parish News #514 – February 2022
