Perhaps we have a worldview problem

As Christians deeply concerned about the climate crisis that we as a human species have created, members of the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care want to contribute to the increasingly obvious call to the Church to develop what we’re calling “creation-informed, Christ-centred discipleship.”

Our scriptures are steeped in an understanding of human creatures as part of creation. The writers of both the Old and New Testaments were, by and large, people connected to the land. They understood human beings not as separate from, and superior to, the wider web of life, but as part of an inter-connected, inter-dependent creation. They understood that human beings are called by the Creator to be caretakers, even servants, of our non-human relations with whom we share this exquisite planet.

However, for centuries the western Church in particular has lost a sense of that sacred connection. Our theology and liturgy have focused almost entirely on the human relationship to God, and we have seen the rest of the created order as outside that relationship, and more like the backdrop, the scenery on the stage, while the real story, the human one, played out over the centuries.

So, for discipleship to be “creation-informed,” we need to recover an understanding of ourselves as part of creation, mortal, vulnerable and entirely dependent on the wider Earth community for our very life, with a calling to understand and care for our non-human kin.

Jesus is our example. His ministry was local, among the people and places where he lived and worked. He spent time in the wilderness where he was formed for ministry and where he went often to pray. He drew teachings about our relationship with God with closely observed parables about seeds and growth, lilies and ravens, and cycles of planting and harvest, how trees grow and how they flourish, and how the wind behaves. His great miracle of feeding the multitudes showed that God’s creation can provide an abundance for all people; his act was a challenge to the environmentally destructive practices of the empire.

As followers of Jesus, we need to ask: what is the calling of the Church in the face of the climate crisis? Our baptismal covenant calls us to “strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth.” This is clearly a call to a creation-informed discipleship. Jesus taught us to be servants of one another. Can we imagine a discipleship of servanthood in our relationship with the whole of creation?

What if we saw clearly, to the core of each of our beings, that we belong to God, and the children of God and God’s creation belong to each other, are kin with each other.

Is it possible we have a worldview problem? Perhaps you’re already thinking that to make this shift in the consciousness of our western Church – in our worldview – will not be easy. And you’d be right! Worldviews are very hard to change, because they are unconscious and mostly unexamined.

In the Diocese of Toronto, the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care supports parishes that are learning through liturgy, education, experience and reflection to see ourselves differently and practice creation-informed, Christ-centred discipleship. Understanding ourselves as connected to the rest of the non-human creation will hopefully lead us to begin to live out God’s intention for a peaceful Earth community in which all flourish. What might that look like?

• It could mean learning to think of ourselves, our place in the world and our discipleship not only as from a specific city, province or country, but also as from a watershed, a landscape or a geographical region shared with specific non-human creatures and unique landmarks.
• It could mean beginning to use creation-informed content in liturgy and prayers.
• It could mean initiating the observance of the Season of Creation into the life of the congregation.
• It could mean worshipping outdoors on occasion; initiating a regular “hiking church” experience; creating a pollinator garden on the church property; or joining in with a local community garden as a church community.
• It would definitely mean learning to read the scriptures through a creation-informed lens.

It could lead us to become advocates who speak for the earth and for the creatures when they and their habitats are threatened.