“Not a secular fuss imported
into the church”
Hurricane Sandy brought home to Americans the human
suffering that often results from the kinds of extreme weather that are
becoming more frequent – and more extreme – as climate change caused by global
warming accelerates. This huge storm, of
course, was not the first instance in 2012 of U.S. weather extremes
affecting people’s lives in important ways. An active and destructive wildfire
season impacted parts of Nebraska, and the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado
destroyed 600 homes. A Midwestern drought also impacted much of Nebraska. This
drought, the most extreme in 50 years, has caused a rise in food prices that is
felt far beyond the Midwest. (See A year of extreme weather – and little climate change talk from The Washington Post.)
Around the world, the personal and economic consequences of
climate change impact people. Those who already know that lack of food or clean
water can threaten their security now face additional burdens as a result of
floods, droughts, or storm damage. Haiti, for example, was not directly hit by
Hurricane Sandy, but Sandy’s heavy rains resulted
in at least 52 deaths and destroyed crops. (See Yet Another Blow to Haiti from A Natural Disaster .)
Both a forum at the recent meeting of the Anglican
Consultative Council (ACC) in Auckland, New Zealand, and a resolution from our
own recent Annual Council speak to the moral imperative for the church to do
more to address environmental degradation and to lead in environmental
stewardship.
Archbishop Rowan Williams chaired a public forum about
environmental change at the ACC meeting. (The story from the Anglican Communion
News Service – worth reading in its entirety -- is available here.) The Archbishop said that “running
out of a world to live in is a mark of our unfaithfulness”, and made it clear
that environmental issues are moral issues for Christians, and not “a secular
fuss imported into the church”. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Southern Africa said
“This is not a social problem, it is not an economic problem, it is not an
environmental problem, it is a moral problem and it needs a moral response.”
Something else Archbishop Thabo said resonates with the
resolution entitled The Least of These that
we passed at our Annual Council. This is the resolution that asks all
committees, commissions, and parishes to prayerfully include as part of every
meeting in calendar year 2013 the following agenda item: “How will what we are
doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?” Our impact on the
environment needs to be included in our reflections on this question.
Thinking about environmental change and the underlying
issues of water, food, and energy, Archbishop Thabo asked a similar set of
questions around what we do in the Eucharist. According to the report, he asked:
“When you are receiving Communion,
have you stopped to think about the water that we use to mix with the wine?
Where has it come from? How clean is that water? Have you stopped to think
about...those who do not have access to basic and of the resultant illnesses
that go with poor sanitation and water? When you receive...wafers, have you
spared a thought for those who do not have food?
“During the service, out of the
small chalice, you are all able to share. Have you not thought that you could
replicate that, that there is a plenty in the world and no need for others to
suffer?”
