Acts 2:43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. KJV

Many are the elephants in church meeting rooms. 

The big beasties, staring us in the face, that won’t go away. That, if they chose, could mess everything up. Some of them have been around much longer than I have. If you choose to notice  them, you can, perhaps, befriend them. If not, they remain a threat.  

There’s one such mammoth, in whose desperate obscuring  I have long been wilfully complicit as a grassroots pastor. 

 But the other day, it popped out and stood in my way. Not yet trumpeting or charging, but it looked me in the eye, and  there was no way round it.

The Eco-Chaplain experience of encountering  the habits of churches is nerve-racking and disquieting. 

When the otherwise good, wholesome and faithful life of churches makes no provision to acknowledge the environmental crisis, or perhaps sidelines it under another heading, it  now feels like singing a hymn to the Trinity, with only two verses. Like Advent or Lent with a week missing. 

These are Good Things, though lacking, and therefore less equipped for challenge,  or for “trial”. 

I find encouragement in the Lord’s Prayer as  used within the Iona Community. The line ‘save us in the time of trial’ chooses the realistic option: acknowledging the bad things that do happen.  It’s in the awareness of these  trials, and , being honest, the associated discomfort,  that we cry out for help. And become more ready to receive it.

There are  many schemes and programmes, generating  resources, which you can take or leave. Ideas which provide  positive encouragement for community development.  If you’re doing them, don’t stop now.

The ‘Five Marks of Mission’  originating in the Anglican Communion, and adopted or acknowledged by many others, leaves it to (the near afterthought) of  number five to include ‘care for creation’, but at least it’s there and clear.

With Holy Habits, (book 2016) which has the backing of my own Church, it’s nowhere, initially,  to be seen’. The programme is based on the Holy Habits of the Early Church, as seen in Acts 2: biblical teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, giving, service, eating together, gladness and generosity, worship and the making of more disciples.

I’m not simply  going to suggest just tagging on ‘Care for Creation’, and thereby risk it being ‘just another module’.  

Every single one of those Holy Habits’ is being actively  transformed by our context, not least ‘the making of more disciples’, for  a church which is realistic about climate challenge, is an attractive spiritual home.

The ‘gap’ in that list, is actually the omission of something present in Acts 2, which  I have struggled to own up to as a part of my faith, namely ‘fear’, which can, of course be toned down and tamed as ‘awe’.  

Throughout my ministry, I have worked to promote ‘awe’ and wonder at the works of God, certainly convinced that this is a ‘Holy Habit’, transforming and nourishing  of life and faith.  But awe and wonder is allowed for  in Acts 2:43. Fear is also still there. 

So today, I find courage - or foolishness -  recognising, in the same helpful way that “it’s all right not to be all right”  that appropriate fear, not of God, but of our planet’s prospects, is indeed a ‘Holy Habit’. 

Holy, because we can be honest about it before God, and in Christian Community. 

Prayer is the opposite of denial. 

In our alertness to the state of the planet, God help us acknowledge, and work through, the Holy Habit of Fear.

With the rise of social media (including this blog)  has come an explosion in sources of news. 

In one way, this can be seen a a democratisation. 

As the group that live-streamed my induction service, ‘Independence Live’  like to put it, ‘Don’t hate the media - be the media!”. Small groups  can indeed bring the unexpected  truth, or a welcome alternative slant on events. 

Nonetheless, we’re probably still the right side of the horrific  tipping point when nothing anywhere is trustworthy at all.

That said, in the semi-global environment of the English-speaking internet, there is plenty of scope for fake news, and indeed, for those sincerely looking for clarity to gain completely false impressions. Worse still, these can be picked up by - you guessed it- the media. The impression can be given that churches or faith groups are obstacles to the acceptance of the alarming scientific insights which can help nations wisely encounter the challenges of climate crisis.

Inevitably, I have encountered some folk in the churches, instinctively suspicious of what they see as an imposed narrative and timetable of climate crisis, with implications for all our lives and lifestyles. You may have a few in your own congregations. 

These good friends are prime fodder for climate denial campaigns,  YouTubers bloggers and vloggers, as well as those with some sort of  scientific background, eager for research funding. 

It is well-known and well-established that some energy industry corporations give (to you and me) huge backing to climate denial groups focussed primarily on the United States.

Thus, if climate denying friends direct you to their latest assertively and aggressively voiced YouTube clip, which is holding them back from bringing their commitment on board with your environmental programmes, do check the accent!  It takes only a little jargon to blind with (non-)science. 

As we are beginning to assemble material for Creation Time/Season of Creation this year, I have been looking over the lectionary readings for September 2019 ( Year C). 

To the extent that there is a common thread, it is one  familiar to mission-minded Christians:  ‘bringing the baddies on board’  or the imperative of convincing and enlisting those whom you (or I) might see as annoyingly misled, unqualified,  or in some sense ‘the wrong people’. A challenge, in other words, to our own prejudice.

But since our ministry as EcoCongregation Scotland is located here, rather than across the Atlantic, there is a different context, and indeed, there are different obstacles.

Look around, and ask around. 

In the UK,  there are, as far as I can see, (and I have checked)  no mainstream Christian or religious groups actively involved in climate denial.   

Our biggest challenges  in Scotland are apathy, postponement and sidelining: where lip-service to the importance of the climate issues is formally  paid, but strategies are employed to keep things on hold.  

And this happens  not out of malice, but rather because that is the way things are done. All of which we probably understand, and all of which, many of us (either knowingly or otherwise) condone or take part in.  It might be nice to carry on this way, but the urgency of climate crisis compels many re-assessments.

Perhaps readers of ‘Lord of the Rings’ might be encouraged to  recall the difficulty the Hobbits had with the Ents, here  shamelessly paraphrased:

“Climate change? yes.

it affects us all.

But you must understand, young EcoHobbit

it takes a long time to say anything 

in Old Churchspeak,

and we never say anything 

unless it is worth taking a long time to say. 

(cf The Two Towers. JRR Tolkien)

When the Ents (a sort of tree-like giant) were eventually convinced, they became formidable and committed allies. The engagement of churches, -especially when they have the confidence to act as churches - is a powerful force for good.

Don’t give up on your churches, even if they’re taking a while to wake up. 

Be encouraged by the good news from other active EcoCongregations. (And come along the Gathering in Dundee, 30th March)  

Be graciously impatient, And shout loudly: your good news can change minds. 

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PS: Another encouragement possibility.

The accommodation provided for the chaplain includes a garden, which contains an apple tree. Some apple crumble has resulted, as well as chutney and jelly, made by a close friend. But this year saw a bumper crop, and we didn’t manage to (or were too lazy to) pick up all the apples. Now I could always blame this on the deceptively wise and ecological  guidance in Leviticus , but the fact is, it has been a huge  source of delight for my family, to look on, as a variety of wild birds piled in and devoured the windfalls. 

So often, the things we disregard, neglect, or avoid,  turn out to be of great value. Anyone re-reading the Bible with a ‘green’ awareness is going to discover something similar. But not just the Bible.

Long before the possibility of being the second Eco-Chaplain was even on the horizon, it fell to me to review, for the United Reformed Church’s magazine ‘Reform’  the 2015 papal encyclical ‘Laudato Si’  (‘Praise be to you...’) ‘On the environment and human ecology”.

The review  was one of those jobs you take on, and then think ‘ what have I got myself into’.  The text is densely written.  But overall, it was a reminder to re-think any prejudices I might have had about official church documents, especially given some years of numbing experience. 

I know every denomination has its jargon; its ways of finally getting round to saying what needs said, but also that squeezing urgent environmental messages into the ponderous procedures of synods and assemblies is a demanding task. Those of us in ‘organised’ churches may need to have our wits about us, to help their life and work be responsive to the global disruption of which each day brings additional confirmation.

One of the wonders of the New Testament, by contrast, is that so little is smoothed over and homogenised, or forced to agree too precisely with other parts.

In the age of climate disruption, we can be grateful  for the remnants we can turn to of the historic  apocalyptic preaching of Jesus, expressing a vibrant consciousness of threat, and encouraging alertness in disciples, to the ‘signs of the times’.  That New Testament writers  invested the time and commitment to bring these things into a written medium suggests both commitment, and perhaps, that they had ‘nothing to lose’ by  passing on memories of the  robust, provocative,  and experiential imagery employed by Jesus.

That’s why Laudato Si  is amazing. It uses and acknowledges the conventions of a Papal encyclical, but goes further, to challenge every reader of good will. The Pope is writing as the Pope, not sloping off somewhere incognito to do a bit of environmentalism on the side. What he is writing is integral to his role and calling. 

This  is what Eco Congregation looks to the churches for:  to be. whilst being recognisably themselves,  the beautiful gift of God  they’re called to be  in this day and age.  Like Scripture,  Laudato Si includes  many gems that are easily missed on first reading. What took my breath away, reviewing my own review, was this quote:

“Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs..”

“governs us”

There’s lots of argument, and some easy point-scoring about the idea of human beings having ‘dominion’ over the Earth, which most wise Christians interpret as a mandate for care and stewardship, rather than ruthless exploitation.   but perhaps here, Pope Francis challenges that remaining shred of unjustified  superiority that we cling to, when we think of the rest of Creation on this planet. Yes, like it or not, we are governed by the Earth.  We aspire  to dominate,  but that brings danger for all. Good government requires wise citizenship, and partnership, and acknowledgement of mutual need, rather than greed and anarchy. An ecology, indeed.

Many of us, even in Christian  environmental circles, struggle to make the leap from seeing Creation as an object ( a’thing’) to respecting her as a subject (a ‘person’, perhaps, a soul). In this lyrical sentence, the Pope leads us several steps further: Creation as part of the government of all our lives, and all life.... to break faith with which, we do, perhaps, at peril.