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The Church of Scotland is a massively important institution in Scottish history, life and culture.

We are not like the Church of England, integral to the Parliamentary system. We are not like the church in the USA, totally separate from the political institutions. Historically, we have the most cordial, healthy relationship with our political systems, both central and devolved. When the Sovereign attends our annual denominational General Assembly, or is represented there by her appointed Lord High Commissioner, she or he is most welcome, but can take no official part in the deliberations of the General Assembly. In that sense, we have biblical autonomy free from state interference. That said, we are the state church with our ongoing commitment to provide the ordinances of the Christian religion to every part of the nation.

While enjoying much of what Paul Helm had to say in his recent article on global warming (EN, November 2008), I would like to challenge a number of points he appeared to be making.

Predicting the future is dangerous. Past and present trends hint at what might be. How should these mould Christian ministry in obedience to the Great Commission? Population growth is one of nine factors that will impact our world.

The population disparities are huge. Two-thirds of the world’s population live within 500 km of a coast. This has benefits for wealth generation and trade, but there are dangers in more low-lying areas if climate change causes a significant rise in sea levels.

The reliable supply of cheap energy is something that is taken for granted in the developed world. This now seems to be under threat.

‘Japanese authorities have raised the severity rating of their nuclear crisis to the highest level, seven. Level seven previously only applied to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where ten times as much radiation was emitted’ (BBC News, April 12 2011). ‘A year on, fear and division still poison the oil spill coast’ (The Times, April 18 2011). ‘Germany withdraws from nuclear power’ (The Telegraph, May 31 2011). These are bad news stories arising, firstly, from the outcome in Japan following the tragic earthquake and tsunami and, secondly, from 12 months ago with the explosion of the Deep Water Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico causing America’s largest environmental catastrophe.

Michael Beard, the protagonist of Solar, is a memorable creation: a philandering, greedy academic resting on his Nobel Prize reputation.

Elizabeth Braund, who for many years has run Shallowford Farm to help inner London city children, shares her experience.

The riots in a number of cities last summer shocked us all. There were banner headlines about the ‘end of an era’, a constant barrage of grim forebodings from the media, endless political argument and social confrontation. But all this has left us not so much keyed-up to new resolve, as indifferent and only wanting to be left alone to get on with our own lives.

In Bible times people lived in an agrarian society. The rituals and feasts, and the metaphors used by preachers, prophets and the Lord Jesus himself speak of the farming calendar. There was a real sense that riches or poverty, and life itself, depended upon God’s blessing in the fruitfulness of labour on the land.

This connection with agriculture was evident in the UK until modern times. Harvest Thanksgiving was an integral part of the church calendar, acknowledging the importance of food production. There was a general appreciation of farming practice. Now, however, that has been lost. Research shows that many children grow up thinking that milk comes in plastic containers from a factory, that white bread is made from milk and brown bread from wheat. Consumers expect strawberries and tomatoes to be available on Christmas Day and at the same prices as when they are in seasonal production.

On a precarious slope, Etienne digs into the dusty soil with a small hoe, planting beans in hope of the rains. In recent years these rains have become unpredictable. Miles away, his wife is returning from the forest, a bundle of firewood on her head. She was up before dawn carrying water from the spring, her only source of water, nearly an hour’s walk away. The young baby on her back is sick with intestinal parasites from drinking this water she has worked so hard to provide.

The global context may be lost on this family, but they live out its consequences on a daily basis. In the United States, frequent headlines warn of what is happening to the earth and its ecosystems, but because the impact on Western life is minimal, the predictions are largely ignored.

David Potter MBE, founder of the charity Prospects, reflects on the Panorama programme exposing the shocking truth.

Way back in June 1981, Associated Television broadcast a devastating documentary called Silent Minority.

Mahatma Gandhi was right when he said, ‘There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed’. Has the West become gluttonous in its appetite for meat, factory farming being a consequence of this greed? Is it not unnatural and inhumane to cram livestock together to feed a population who eat far too much meat anyway?

Most of us abhor cruelty to animals, so why are we ostrich-like when it comes to factory farming where animals are denied their natural habitat; for example chicken, one of Britain’s favourite meats, live a short life intensively farmed in windowless sheds under bright light to encourage maximum activity, feeding and drinking for nearly 24 hours, not allowing rest: there is much evidence that sick birds are trampled to death in the crowded squalor and infections spread like wildfire, resulting in gross over-use of antibiotics. Ducks are farmed in the same way today and what is alarming about this practice is that they never see the light of day nor do they have access to water.

Leading a group of churches carries enormous responsibilities in the current spiritual climate. John Stevens, recently appointed Director of FIEC, spoke to EN about his work.

EN: Please explain your new role at FIEC.

JS: On September 1 2010, I started in my new post as Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC). According to my job description, I am responsible ‘for providing visionary leadership to and the smooth running of the Fellowship’ so that it can accomplish the goals and objectives determined by the new Trust Board after consultation with the churches.

Missionaries on home assignment have many responsibilities. They talk to their mission, report to churches, reconnect with their home church, contact supporters, deal with health issues, see family and maybe get some holiday. This article is not addressed to them!

Why should Christians be green? Don’t we pay taxes so that the government can deal with issues like global warming? And besides, hasn’t the church got better things to do?

These are the kinds of questions which go through the minds of many ordinary churchgoers as the TV news carries yet another story of what the scientists are saying about changing weather patterns.

It has been suggested that, in a situation of great uncertainty over a vital issue, we should adopt Blaise Pascal’s strategy. Pascal famously argued that, in a situation in which it could not be proved either that God exists or that he does not exist, with the evidence for and against the question broadly speaking balanced, the rational thing to do is to gamble on his existence. If we win we shall escape judgment, and if we lose there won’t be a judgment to escape. Whereas if we gamble on his non-existence, we shall suffer punishment if we are wrong and be obliterated if we are correct, and we have a 50-50 chance of being wrong.

So, perhaps, in Pascalian fashion, in a situation of radical uncertainty, coupled with the possibly dangerous consequences of inaction, we should gamble on the global warming ‘scientific consensus’ being correct.

The Lausanne Covenant, substantially crafted by John Stott, includes the phrase: ‘Evangelisation requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world’.

One might argue that the three wholes embodied in this ringing phrase are hardly new, and go back to the Apostle Paul, if not to the patriarch Abraham himself. Let us look at what each means.

There has been much talk in the media recently about the ‘green shoots of recovery’ (real or imagined), but also of the role education might play in driving the country out of recession.

It’s fashionable to suggest that there needs to be an increased emphasis on vocational routes to individual career choices — on education serving the economy. I would argue, however, that this reflects a philosophy which involves ‘putting the cart before the horse’ (heretical as that may sound in the current climate), and that a distinctively Christian vision of what education is, and what it is for, offers a far better hope of a well-educated and effective workforce than its secular equivalent.

The above heading should give no satisfaction to any evangelical Christian. Some of the finest literature in the evangelical heritage comes from gospel ministers of the Church of England, and many evangelicals continue to belong to that denomination today.

The crisis has arisen from more than one direction; one major cause has been that no discipline has been exercised within the Anglican communion (led by the Archbishop of Canterbury) on the Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church USA for their allowance of practising homosexual clergy. This has prompted the withdrawal of some evangelicals and their realignment with the Province of South Cone (which covers six South American countries), whose Primate, Archbishop Gregory Venables, remains in communion with Canterbury. By this means, the disaffected — of whom Dr. Jim Packer is the best known — support their claim to remain Anglican.

Chicken is on the menu. And not just chicken, but baby animals as well: piglets, lamb, kid goats and veal.

The celebrity chefs, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, have both presented recent Channel 4 programmes on the cruelties of the intensive chicken industry.

The 600 men who attended the fifth Cardiff Men’s Convention in 2008 are still telling us that it was ‘the best convention yet’. Once more the All Nations Centre in Cardiff was filled with men who brought a compassion to worship, a real hunger for truth in the teaching and, maybe most important of all, the encouragement of being with other Christian men.

The title of this year’s convention was ‘Leaving a Legacy’, the central idea being that Christian men have a significant responsibility to create a positive legacy in their churches, their family, their workplace and in the wider community. The teaching was designed to challenge and inspire, but also to equip men to take on that responsibility.

I recently heard a sermon on Luke 13 and the parable of the diminutive-but-soon-to-be-huge mustard seed. One of the upshots of Jesus telling us that the Kingdom of God is steadily growing is that we need to get a right understanding about what is really important and cultivate a ‘healthy disrespect for the rich and powerful’.

I assume that an unhealthy disrespect for the rich and powerful might be some sort of shallow critical attitude that licences feelings of prejudice and moral superiority. A healthy disrespect, meanwhile, recognises that although some people have the privilege of great wealth and power, it is not an enviable privilege. The mustard seed teaches that, eventually, having material riches and power will count for nothing if they are not invested in the growth of the Kingdom of God.

One day last summer I lost my church. Or rather, it lost me.

I’d been out of the country a couple weeks, and, therefore, hadn’t been to church in a while. My first Sunday back, I showed up at the usual time and place ready to reconnect with friends through a communal experience of faith.

There is a mission field that I’ve always struggled to know how to reach with the gospel. It’s made up of what I call ‘choral atheists’.

These are people who belong to church choirs or choral societies, they sing Christ-centred works like Bach’s Matthew Passion or Handel’s Messiah, and yet they don’t believe a word of what they sing. To be honest, I find that choral atheists are more hardened to the gospel than anyone else I meet. Just as hardened are the non-believers who like to listen to this music, which, though I don’t like the definition, I’ll refer to as sacred music.

Barry Seagren finds that the parallels between Islamic extremists and evangelical Christians are too close for comfort.

The term fundamentalist has always had negative connotations, and especially so since 9/11.

Towards a theology of sustainability

‘Sustainability’ is a concept in search of a home. Many have an idea of what it means, but scratch beneath the surface and the ideas are diverse at best, contradictory at worst.

Today sustainability has become a great rallying cry, adopted by politicians, economists, multinational corporations, scientists, environmentalists, town planners and faith leaders . . . but they use it to mean what they want it to mean.