earth watch
Climate justice: for the good of all creation
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Jul 2021
‘What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!’
People seeking justice of one kind or another rarely seem to be out of the news these days. Christians should be discerning about which causes we support, but ultimately God is a God who loves justice and who wants us to do the same. As the prophet Micah says: ‘What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ (Mic.6: 8). We should love, care for and support anyone suffering from genuine injustice.
earth watch
Since 1970: 69% gone!
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
One of my favourite children’s books is Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpens’ Wonderful Earth!
It’s a joyous and beautifully illustrated celebration of the wonder and diversity of creation. And sometimes creation is just gloriously weird; who could forget creatures such as the football fish, the weedy seadragon or the pink fairy armadillo? Wonderful Earth! is in part an imaginative reworking of Psalm 104, which celebrates the greatness of the Creator and His creation. There are wild donkeys quenching their thirst from mountain streams, cedars of Lebanon where the birds nest, hyraxes taking refuge in the crags, lions roaring for their prey and Leviathan frolicking in the vast sea, which teems with creatures beyond number.
A Labour election view: Faith comes first
Rachael Maskell
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Faith comes first. Serving Christ in our troubled and broken world is the call. But why intersect with politics?
Politics is one of many platforms through which to shape our society, challenge inequity and advance opportunity. It is the place where the distribution of wealth is determined through economic policy, how our public services are run, and sets the cultural direction of our nation here at home and how we address issues afar.
news in brief
USA: SBC not to ban women pastors
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has just failed to achieve the two-thirds majority vote needed to place a ban in its constitution on women being church pastors.
Issues impacting women are prominent at this year’s annual meeting of the SBC, taking place in Indianapolis. Church leaders also approved a resolution condemning in vitro fertilisation. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the US, with over 50,000 churches and over 14 million members, and is now a serious political force in the country.
Encouragement in Wales
Stuart Bell
Date posted: 1 Nov 2023
Bishop Stuart Bell of the GAFCON-affiliated Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACE) writes: Archbishop Ben Kwashi, General Secretary of GAFCON, the global Anglican movement, was the guest of the Evangelical Fellowship of the Church in Wales meeting with Anglican leaders for 24 hours (28-29 September) at the Hookses, the retreat of the late John Stott in Dale, Pembrokeshire.
In one session he spoke of what God is doing more widely in the Anglican communion and in another he gave encouragement from the Scriptures and from his own experience that we should stand firm. ‘We have nothing in Nigeria’, he said, ‘so if we give up Christ then we would have less than nothing; whereas if you in the West were to give up Christ you still would have your comfortable lifestyle.’
Word on the Wash ponders Lazarus
Anne Roberts
Date posted: 1 Nov 2023
More than 40 churches were represented at this year’s ‘Word on the Wash’ – an annual Bible-teaching event held in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
Speaker Phil Moore (see photo) expounded the story of Lazarus in John chapter 11, applying this to the church in Britain ‘returning to life’.
letter from Australia
From fires to floods
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Australia is experiencing a new government and a new Prime Minister.
As predicted before the recent election, the Labor party won and its leader, Anthony Albanese, was duly elected PM. It is noticeable and a reason for thanksgiving that there was no dispute about the result and the former PM, Scott Morrison, handed over the reins of power before all the votes were counted!
Keswick: ‘My conversations online with AI’
Ros Clarke
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
Have you experimented with ChatGPT or Google Bard? These two extraordinary chatbots based on large language models can have ‘conversations’ about anything and everything.
It is like an interactive form of Wikipedia, a helpline, a travel guide, a review site, and much, much more. The conversations can mimic ordinary human chat to an incredible degree. They were very excited to hear all about my new dog and asked sensible questions, though it was a bit like talking to a child who has just read a book and wants to list all the facts they have learned.
Climate deal lacks cash, says evangelical
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
A key pact made at the COP27 Climate
Summit
in Egypt doesn’t have enough
money behind it to make it work, according
to an evangelical climate expert.
Andy Atkins, chief executive of green
Christian organisation A Rocha, said of the
‘Loss and Damage Agreement’ – designed to
compensate poorer countries suffering from
climate change:
Keswick ‘getting younger’ as it seeks to expand
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
After 30 years of working in mission both in the UK and across the globe, Mark Ellis became Ministry Director for Keswick Ministries in September 2023.
Six months into the role, he talks to en about how things are going, what’s new at the convention this year, and the future of Keswick Ministries.
earth watch
Rivers of filth are flowing
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
Is cleanliness next to godliness? Apparently, this phrase may have originated with John Wesley who thought that being a Christian was no excuse for slovenliness.
Although many of us took great care with cleanliness during the pandemic, these days we don’t naturally associate hygiene with being a Christian, despite all the Old Testament laws on cleanliness. Maybe we’re all too aware of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees who were obsessed with the ritual hygiene laws, and have rightly taken to heart the importance of being spiritually clean. Pharisee alert over, that doesn’t mean we should neglect matters of personal or domestic hygiene.
Pros and cons of coal
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
Dear Editor,
In making the case for the creation of the first new deep-mined coal mine in 30 years, in Cumbria, Roland Morris criticised those who have ‘the least understanding of’ the principles underlying climate science. Unhappily, he himself obviously doesn’t understand that the ‘Case for Cumbrian mine [is] undermined by doubt over UK market for coking coal. Sulphur content of the coal could mean British companies are unable to use it’ (Emma Gatten, The Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2021). As a result the Telegraph concluded (8 December 2022), that ‘The case for the Woodhouse Colliery to be allowed to start production isn’t just flimsy, it’s non-existent’. The Conservative peer, Lord Deben, Chair of the government’s own Climate Change Committee, has described the proposal as ‘absolutely indefensible’.
earth watch
Eight million threatened
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
What do Glasgow, Sharm El Sheikh, Kunming, and Montreal have in common? Shipbuilding cities? Exotic holiday destinations? Which is the odd one out, and why do they matter to the future of the planet?
You may remember the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. The follow-up conference will be taking place shortly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh where there will be an assessment of whether countries are doing enough to tackle climate change (almost certainly not, according to the independent think tank Chatham House).
earth watch
Record-breaking climate
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
The British are notorious for talking about the weather. It’s little wonder given that we live on an island which is subject to constantly changing weather systems. In last month’s column I talked about how ready the UK is for a changing climate, and how we are already experiencing hotter, drier summers but also more intense summer rainfall.
No sooner had I emailed my article to en than the world experienced a series of weather extremes which perfectly illustrated this point, so I make no apologies for returning to the subject.
earth watch
Spotting climate error
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Do you have an EV? No, that’s not shorthand for an Evangelical or even a new English translation of the Bible, it’s an Electric Vehicle.
My recent purchase of an EV has got me pondering, in a strange sort of way, the importance of truth when it comes to creation care.
politics & policy
Get out there, believer...
Tim Farron
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
A general election is on the horizon. The electoral machine is starting to whir into a frenzy that won’t stop until whenever polling day lands.
Elections mean more than just a reshuffling of politicians or technical adjustments to the nation’s bank account. New governments shape the future. From the big commitments, like tackling the climate crisis, to the small, like promising to save the village post office. Elections are a moment for parties to set out their vision.
Pros and cons of coal
Date posted: 1 Apr 2023
Dear Editor,
I was rather disappointed by the ‘Earth Watch’ article in the February edition of en. The whole question of climate change involves complex scientific principles. And sadly those who make the most noise in the media have the least understanding of these principles. The result is that money is wasted on projects which have minimal effect on the planet as a whole.
Jesus in focus
Hugh Lowries
Date posted: 1 Apr 2023
Book Review
SMUGGLING JESUS BACK INTO THE
CHURCH:
How the church became worldly and
what to do about it
Read review
Blind spots of our day
Date posted: 1 Jul 2021
Dear Editor,
I was grateful to read the provocation from John Stevens (Comment, May en) about what the blind spot of our day might be. He mentioned two possibilities in particular: abortion and global warming. It will come as no surprise to those who are aware of our ministry that I will be placing my vote with the former, but allow me to offer four objective reasons – nothing to do with my ‘passion’ or ‘calling’ – as to why, if we were to pick one (and I am not saying there is only one), it would have to be abortion, hands down.
Global warming
Date posted: 1 Sep 2022
Dear Editor,
How to respond to David Robertson’s ‘Letter from Australia’? (en August 2022)
news in brief
Iraq: early inscriptions found in Mosul
Archaeologists restoring the historic Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Mosul, Iraq, which was badly damaged by Islamic State fighters, have discovered about a dozen ancient relics and parchments.
The relics include six stone containers with Aramaic inscriptions, some relating to important figures in the early church. One refers to Simon ‘The Zealot’, one of Christ’s disciples; another mentions Saint Theodore, a Roman soldier born in Corum, Turkey, in the third century, who was beheaded for having converted to Christianity.
‘What strengths do the younger generation have?’
‘What strengths do the younger generation have?’ The youngest person in the group asked this question in a meeting of church leaders, exasperated at the negative tone of the conversation. It was an appropriate rebuke in the middle of a discussion about the apparent reduction of younger people seeking to serve full-time in gospel ministry.
It is easy to feel despair at our times. Anyone who has read Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation or Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy will be aware of the increase in diagnosed mental health issues among young people. Both books raise valuable matters we need to consider – issues around smartphone technology, outsourcing childhood to experts and counsellors, creating a climate of fear and anxiety among parents in the ‘real’ world, and yet ignoring exposure to harm in the ‘online’ world.