Sentiment or action?

The sad death of HRH Prince Philip in April sparked many tributes to his lifetime of public service.

As well as being the world’s self-confessed expert in plaque unveiling, Prince Philip had a long-standing interest in nature conservation, long before it was fashionable. Others have documented his interest in birdwatching, his friendship with the naturalist Sir Peter Scott, and his long association with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as president of the UK organisation from its founding in 1961.

What perhaps is less well-known is how Prince Philip’s Christian faith informed his interest in creation. There was more than a hint of this in his funeral service, which included Psalm 104 sung to a setting commissioned by the Duke himself. Psalm 104 is full of wonder at the works of God in creation, as in verse 5: ‘He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved’.

Responsibility for creation

In an interview given in 2003, Prince Philip said: ‘If your religion tells you (as it does in Christianity anyway) that the creation of the world was an act of God, then it follows naturally that if you belong to the church of God then you ought to look after His creation. It may not be sacred itself but the One who created it is sacred – so it seems logical that humans ought to have a certain responsibility for it.’ Amen!

It’s perhaps hard to imagine now how forward-thinking Prince Philip was. In the immediate post-war period, there was little appreciation of humanity’s impact on creation and the scale of damage that would ensue in the coming decades. There were important steps forward, like the designation of national parks in the UK, but membership of environmental bodies was a handful compared to today; it was a niche interest. It was only events like the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, which established the link between pesticides and adverse environmental effects, and the sinking of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon in 1967, which brought the issues home to the wider public.

Silent church

As for the church, it was largely silent. As a student in the 1980s I struggled to find any Christian literature on creation care. The oldest book I can find on my shelf is Ron Elsdon’s Bent World from 1981, although it wasn’t long until another keen birdwatcher, John Stott, covered the environment in the first edition of Issues Facing Christians Today. As one of the Queen’s Chaplains, Stott would have met the Prince and I wonder if they ever talked about birds.

At about the same time, Prince Philip’s interests took him in a rather different direction. His work with WWF and his curiosity about other world faiths led to the convening of a conference with leaders from different faith traditions in Assisi, Italy, in 1986. This produced the Assisi Declarations: five statements on humanity and nature from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The following decade he founded the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a secular body whose aim was to assist the major religions of the world to develop environmental programmes based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.

Declarations and action

ARC was wound up several years ago. I can’t speak for the other religions, but in the Christian church the need for creation care is now recognised across all major denominations. In the evangelical world I think of the Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation in 1994 or more recently the Lausanne Movement’s Cape Town Commitment of 2010. Still, as a friend once observed to me: ‘Of the making of declarations there is no end’ – they don’t necessarily translate into actions by church members. What really matters is whether our worship of the Creator results in practical care for His creation, fulfilling our responsibility for it. What action are you taking?