“The Earth is the Lord’s”
Modern Church Annual Conference
15-18 July 2013
a report by Chris Benson
Click on words in blue to go to a relevant webpage
Modern Church (formerly Modern Churchpeople’s Union) is an
organisation dedicated to fostering liberal Christianity -open-minded, reflective
and enquiring – principally (though not exclusively) within the Church of
England. I have been a member for a number of years but this was my first MC conference.
Being (relatively) newly-retired enabled me to attend but the theme this year –
“The Earth is the Lord’s” – tied in so strongly with the initiatives on
environment and sustainability getting under way at St John’s that I would have
tried hard to attend even if still working.
It was pretty obvious as I got off the train at Broxbourne
who was heading for High Leigh Conference Centre at Hoddesden in Hertfordshire
– somehow there is an unmistakeable ‘look’ to MC members! There was not enough
room in the minibus provide for all, so with the bags going in the bus, three
of us volunteered to undertake the pleasant walk along the river Lea and
through the parkland at the back of the conference centre. Given the theme it
seemed appropriate to arrive on foot.
Jonathan Clatworthy, General Secretary of MC, began the
conference, with the temperature pushing 30°, by welcoming us to “the High
Leigh climate change experience,” and introducing our chair, Margaret Barker,
who had assembled the speakers, most of whom had, like her, been associated with
the ‘floating symposia’ on science, religion and the environment organised by
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of the eastern Orthodox Church,
whose name cropped up frequently and about whom we were to hear very much more
the following evening.
Margaret Barker delivered a formidably scholarly though
entertaining talk entitled The Eternal Covenant. Drawing heavily on her
enormous knowledge of ancient languages and her specialism of the Jerusalem
Temple and the rituals and theology surrounding it, she pointed out that there
are several covenants in Bible (with Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.) but
over-arching them all is the Eternal Covenant with all creation spoken of by
Isaiah (24:4-6). She said that a covenant is not “a deal”, rather a system of bonds,
capable of being broken by human sin. She used the analogy of a spider’s web:
the web can retain its stability if a few supporting threads are broken, but if
too many are broken it will suffer a catastrophic collapse. This is the
situation we are in in relation to creation – and scripture spells out the
nightmare consequences of this collapse. This sin is brought about through the
abuse of knowledge – knowledge without wisdom. By eating of the Tree of
Knowledge and not the Tree of Life, Adam rejected God’s life-sustaining wisdom.
Knowledge without wisdom brings about the fall of the Tower of Babel and the
Flood. The Jerusalem Temple was designed to be a model of creation and sin in
the community as seen as polluting not just the Temple but creation itself (in
Hebrew, Margaret told us, the words ‘polluted’ and ‘Godless’ sound the same).
The Temple rituals were seen as restoring the broken threads of creation (the
concept of atonement).
David Shreeve, Environment Consultant to the Archbishops’
Council, spoke on “Nurturing in his Name”, noting some of the hopeful signs
that the churches are at last beginning to engage with environmental issues.
The Bishop of London has equated care for the environment with love of neighbour.
Both Pope Francis and his predecessor have called on Christians to protect the environment.
In the USA, the situation is less happy. Evangelical Christians, especially in
the south, continue to deny that climate change is happening, but even there
attitudes are very slowly changing, mainly due to pressure from younger people.
The next day brought us the really scary stuff. Hylton
Murray Philipson first saw trees being destroyed in the Amazon rainforest at
the age of 17, and spoke emotionally of the impact it made on him. He reminded
us of what was to be one of the main themes of the conference: the interconnectedness
of all things. The Amazon rainforest, as well as sequestering a colossal amount
of carbon, and being a miraculously abundant natural habitat, also acts as a
missive water pump, drawing water from the soil and discharging it as vapour
into the atmosphere, benefitting weather around the globe. But this vast
natural resource is under constant attack from development. The area of four
Hyde Parks is lost every hour. 20% of the entire rainforest, which is – or was
– about the size of Europe, and 93% of the forest adjoining the coast, has
already been lost to the bulldozers of the unscrupulous and the chainsaws of
the plain desperate, who continue to defy environmental legislation to grow
soya which ends up being fed to cattle. The unsuitable soil quickly becomes barren
and is then abandoned as the growers move on. The indigenous people and
activists who stand in their way sometimes pay with their lives, like the
American nun Sister Dorothy Stang, murdered in 2005. Meanwhile, carbon levels
in the atmosphere continue to rise, passing 400ppm last month. We probably have
only two years to stabilise carbon levels, otherwise events are likely to
spiral out of control. Hylton showed film illustrating the scale, beauty and
biodiversity of the rainforest and also heart-breaking images of its
destruction.
There was more bad news from the next speaker, Professor Tom
Spencer, a former Tory MEP, though very out of sympathy with some of the
policies of the present government. Returning to Margaret Barker’s theme of the
bonds of the Eternal Covenant, he foresaw a “civilizational crisis” if these
broken bonds are not very quickly restored. By the end of this century, he
predicted, three billion [sic] people may die as a result of famine, disease,
natural disaster and war attributable to the effects of climate change – and
some think the figure may be considerably higher. We are so used to rhetoric of
progress that we find it almost impossible to say to our children and
grandchildren that this is what lies ahead of them. Standing in the way of
action is, firstly, fear – the enormity of the problem so paralyses people that
they are unable even to listen to the message, let alone react to it. Secondly,
there are the enormous resources being dedicated by commercial interests to
obstructing effective action. Meanwhile, political parties, weakened by
falling, and therefore less broadly-based, more ideological membership, are
less able to rise to the challenge of finding solutions and providing the
leadership to carry them through. In these circumstances the churches’ role as
storyteller and as bringer of hope is vital.
After an afternoon dedicated to the Modern Church AGM and a
celebration of the Eucharist, the evening session was devoted to DVDs
portraying Patriarch Bartholomew. He is a remarkable man. The Turkish
authorities put considerable difficulties in his way as he ministers to his
small Christian flock, mainly in Istanbul, closing his tranquil island
seminary, and he faces intimidation and threats from Islamists. But it is his
work on the environment which is unique in its scope and vision. He has gathered
together 50 scientists and 50 theologians (from all major world faiths) on
ships loaned by Greek owners to visit areas of environmental stress, meet those
affected, discuss the challenges and seek ways in which the centuries-old rift
between science and religion might be healed in the cause of protecting our
planet. Sites visited have included a heavily-polluted abandoned chemical plant
in Albania, melting glaciers in Greenland, a sewage plant in the Baltic and
deforestation in Amazonia. In the Amazon jungle the Patriarch met
representatives of indigenous people, who live in harmony with their forest,
taking only what they need. For them, any form of pollution such as throwing rubbish
into the river is taboo. (Unrecyclable waste is unknown in nature.) “We need
each other,” the Patriarch says. “They need our science, we need their
traditions.” One of the most moving scenes showed Bartholomew and his fellow
faith leaders, heads bowed, being blessed by an Amazonian shaman, and in
another we saw representatives of twelve world religions standing together in
prayer among the Arctic ice: “May God grant us the wisdom to act in time.”
Next morning began (after worship and breakfast) with a Roman
Catholic contribution. The conference chaplain, Fr. Domenic White, described
his spiritual experience of nature (a thunderstorm at the age of three) and of
music, especially the organ music of Olivier Messiaen and Jehan Alain. He sees
the arts as bridging the gap between sacred and secular, and church musicians in
particular as having a responsibility to act as a channel between heaven and
earth. All this background informs his own composition “Cosmos”, a multi-media
work bringing together organ music, African drumming, Gregorian chant, dance,
sculpture and projected images in nine dances with titles such as “The Sea
Dance,” the Mystery of Time,” “Regeneration” and “The Fire Dance” under the
headings “Origins”, “The Rites of Spring” and “Ecstasy,” in celebration of the
natural world and its cycles. Fr. Domenic spoke of the monumental task of
bringing this work, 12 years in the making, to performance. A film of one of
the dances, “Angels” was shown, and deeply impressed all present.
Next up, Dr Alex Evans, senior fellow at the Center on
International Cooperation at New York University gave a notable talk entitled
the “The Psychology of atonement and environmental restoration.” He spoke first
of his “loss of faith”, in the course of his work with the UN Global panel on
Sustainability. He believed he had been seeing world leaders at last moving
towards effective global action on the environment, reining in human activity
approaching the limits of what the planet can absorb, and sharing carbon
emissions more fairly between the developed and underdeveloped worlds. Instead,
he saw no leader prepared to look beyond national interest, or even acknowledge
that limits to human activity are needed. So, if rational argument and clear evidence
don’t persuade people, what will? New forms of governance are needed but it is
not yet clear what form they might take. Meanwhile, if the battle is to be won,
it is more like to be won in individuals rather than governments. People have
to be persuaded not to escape into what he described as “a consumer society
suffering from attention deficit disorder.”
Dr Evans returned to the Eternal Covenant, as a means of
maintaining peace and harmony in creation, through Wisdom, the feminine aspect
of God. The Christian vision of justice and peace for all is way ahead of any
current political thinking. The vision may be mystical, but it is “utterly concerned
with the here and now.” Jesus came as the great High Priest to restore the
broken Covenant bonds, but that role now belongs to us all.
He concluded by predicting that a “crisis moment,” such as
those spoken of symbolically in the apocalyptic texts in the Bible, is
approaching, bringing opportunities for atonement and renewal. At such a
moment, our Judaeo-Christian roots, symbols and stories have an important
resonance for a society struggling to find myths to carry it through what are
likely to be very turbulent times. The Church needs to stop obsessing about
women bishops and gay priests and return to preaching the Eternal Covenant
thorough the myths, stories and rituals surrounding it.
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman’s session had the somewhat prolix title
“The Earth Charter: A holistic approach to 'restoring the covenant' -a case
study on Friern Barnet Community Library,” but was really more of a workshop to
digest and feedback conference’s response thus far. The
Earth Charter is a “declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just,
sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century… centrally
concerned with the transition to sustainable ways of living and sustainable
human development.” It has been put together by politicians, theologians,
indigenous peoples, lawyers and scientists from around the world. Though not a
religious document as such, it speaks of the humility, sacredness and interconnectedness,
and draws heavily on faith traditions.
The evening brought some relaxation as conference members
entertained each other with a variety of “party pieces” – songs, poems and
humour.
The opening session of the final morning comprised a talk by
the Revd Helen Hutchinson, Diocesan Environmental Officer for the St Albans
Diocese, with the provocative title “Melting ice caps, disappearing mangrove
swamps and vanishing bees: how do these events play in Stocking Pelham?”
The problem, she said, is that although people are generally
quite well-informed about environmental problems they do not connect them with
their own individual lifestyle. Change must come from below, and churches need
to be a prophetic voice in their own communities. “Think global, act local” is
the message. In St Albans Diocese a mission programme aims to bring this about by
transforming communities. An award scheme, “Living Lightly,” enables parishes
to engage with sustainability through practical action such as buying green
energy, insulating churches and halls, managing churchyards to be
wildlife-friendly, and supporting local farmers. Initiatives include a “Walk to
Church Sunday,” retreat days in the “forest cathedral” at Whipsnade, and
special liturgies for festivals such as Lammas tide and Apple Day. Here, Celtic
and Eastern Orthodox spirituality is proving valuable. Some ideas may seem
“New-Agey,” but, as Helen pointed out, “New Age is our brand.”
As a case study, Helen talked about the setting up of an
apiary in the churchyard at Leighton Buzzard (appropriately!), the hives being
duly blessed. The project has developed friendships and fellowship, and is now
branching out into schools. Part of the grant will be used to buy bee suits for
young people. The need to reconnect young people with nature and enable them to
discover the sacred and numinous in the natural world is urgent.
The final session gave us all a chance to reflect on what we
had heard throughout the conference through an exercise (in groups) to
summarise a characteristically Biblical view of creation and translate that
into ideas for a harvest festival service. These included showing
a Youtubeclip of the rainforest accompanied by the Vivaldi Gloria shown to us earlier by
Hylton Murray Philipson, asking
every member of the congregation to bring a fruit or vegetable to hold in
church (to overcome the effect of tinned offerings of distancing us from the
source of our food), and, most radically, “decorating” the church with black
bin bags of unrecyclable rubbish, to be brought up to the altar as an act of
penitence! The value of the Benedicite canticle was underlined by several
groups.
So the conference ended, and I departed, grateful for the
excellent hospitality of High Leigh, the walks in the fields and woods behind
it in the cool of the early morning, and much stimulating and enjoyable
company. My final thoughts? Firstly, a negative one: apprehension. It does seem
very possible that we will fail (indeed we may already have failed) to take
enough action in time to prevent our world suffering catastrophic climate
change. That may not impact much on people like myself born in the 1950s, but
it is likely to impact on my children and almost certainly my
grandchildren. What sort of a world they might inherit can
be a terrifying thought. But there is hope, provided principally by the
extraordinary people still doing all they can to prevent the worst happening.
And there is hope too in the churches, providing the communities, the places,
the stories and the rituals which will be essential if human beings are to face
the crisis and come out the other side with their humanity intact.
The conference themes of the Eternal Covenant, the
interconnectedness of all things, “think global, act local” all provided much
encouragement and inspiration as I headed for home (by public transport, of
course).
