Creation care and our baptismal calling

In the materials for the diocese’s 2026 social justice vestry motion, the commitment to creation care was described as “rooted in our baptismal covenant.” In 2013, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada voted to incorporate the fifth Mark of Mission of the Anglican Communion – “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the Earth” – into the baptismal covenant in the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) by adding the question: “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?/I will, with God’s help.”

The online and newer printed editions of the BAS include this question as part of the baptismal covenant, to which all baptized members of the congregation make assent along with the newly baptized. Some parishes may include the online version in the leaflet given to the congregation. It’s also possible to print stickers containing the sixth baptismal promise that can be affixed to the bottom of page 159 of the BAS (see www.toronto.anglican.ca/creationcare). But there are many parishes in our diocese that haven’t updated their BAS baptismal rite, and others who use the Book of Common Prayer. It would be safe to say that most Anglicans in our diocese were baptized before 2013. So, does it still make sense to describe creation care as rooted in our baptismal covenant?

I would argue that it does.

Christian baptism, whatever the rite, involves a commitment to turn away from sin and to live according to God’s commandments. In the Book of Common Prayer, the person being baptized (or their sponsors) renounces “the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh.” They go on to acknowledge “the duty to keep God’s holy will and commandments, walking steadfastly in the way of Christ.”

The threats to the integrity of God’s creation, including a liveable climate for all of Earth’s inhabitants, are directly tied to the things that we as Christians renounce through our baptism. The temptation of the devil, from Adam and Eve in Eden to Jesus in the wilderness, is always to profess to know better than God, to seek manipulation and misuse of what God has ordained, for the furtherance of one’s own ends. We can see this in human activities that overwhelm the carrying capacity of our Earth and its atmosphere, from overharvesting wildlife, fisheries and forests to exhausting the fertility of the soil to burning fuels that contribute more greenhouse gases than are compatible with a liveable climate. Persisting in such activities despite increasing warnings about the impacts is an example of prideful disdain at the limits God has woven into the created order. Grasping after power and wealth for ourselves at the expense of others shows our covetous and sinful desires. Our continual greed for more – whether it be fast fashion, the latest technology, fruits out of season, AI-generated images or same-day shipping – is a major contributor to climate change, as well as pollution, waste, overconsumption of the Earth’s resources and exploitation of other human beings.

Likewise, when we think about keeping God’s will and commandments, we recall that God’s first commandments to humankind concern our relationship with the Earth. In Genesis 1:26-28, God gives human beings authority to exercise dominion over the Earth as image-bearers of God, an implication that has all too often been lost when we exchange dominion in the image of a loving Creator for rapacious domination. In Genesis 2:15, human beings are set in the garden to “till and keep it,” or as a closer translation of the Hebrew says, “to serve and observe it.” Taken together, these original commandments invite us into a relationship with the land marked by humility – learning God’s ways and the physical laws God has embedded within the created universe – as well as responsibility – being intentional in our use of creation and accountable for our actions. How do our actions toward the Earth mark us as image-bearers of the One who creates, sustains, loves and redeems it?

We might also consider the greatest commandment. Loving God, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself, calls us to treat God’s creation with attention and care, rather than with a rapaciousness and greed that dishonours God’s handiwork and causes others to suffer.

The Apostle Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? … If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him into a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3, 5) Baptism makes us dead to sin – the things that corrupt and destroy us and all God’s creatures – and brings us into the new life of Christ, the one who was sent in order that the whole world, all things in heaven and earth, might be saved and reconciled to God. (John 3:17, Colossians 1:20) As Romans 8:19 reminds us, all creation “waits with eager longing for the children of God to be revealed.”

The addition of the fifth Mark of Mission to the baptismal covenant in the BAS thus makes explicit something that was implicit in older rites. Through scripture and through our baptism, we are called ever deeper into following Jesus Christ. We are brought closer to the heart of God, who “hates nothing that he has made,” whose desire is that we, and all creation, be redeemed.

Whether you were baptized using the BCP or the BAS before 2013, or in another Christian denomination altogether, the call “to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth” is part of your calling, too. As we move from Lent to Easter, let us live more deeply into this baptismal covenant, that all creation may praise God’s name.