This is what I prepared to share for the Squamish Multifaith Association event last Sunday on the topic of “Faith and the Environment.” What a beautiful opportunity to gather, share and learn together.

Thanks be to God!

 

CG+

 

Hello! Today I am representing the Anglican flavour of the Christian tradition.  

We at St. John the Divine are part of the Anglican Church of Canada, which in turn is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Anglicans are very diverse, and so, with whatever I say, there will always be someone who disagrees.

As a Trinitarian Church, we believe that God is three in one and one in three. Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Lover, Beloved and Love; Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. It is good to begin here because, for Anglicans, one of our most foundational beliefs about the environment is God’s relationship with it as Creator.

We believe that the environment, as creation, is a special source of God’s self-revelation. Therefore, we encounter and learn about what God is like in creation.

There is a long history of Anglicans in the natural sciences, with many early European naturalists being Anglicans, and many today who study evolution and ecology, both from scientific and theological directions. Evolution and ecology are actually my own background and still a very important part of my Christian faith.  

In the last hundred years, there has been an important theological shift, not unique to the Anglican Church, moving away from a view of humanity’s relationship with creation as one of domination and exploitation – subduing creation – to one that is more relational – stewarding creation. Generally, we now embrace a view of humanity that is not separate and above, but fundamentally a part of creation, with special responsibility for its care.

Both causing and coming from this shift, Anglicans have been concerned and engaged with what we would call creation care and ecological justice for a long time, both formally and informally. We believe that part of our roles as stewards of the earth is about responding to the environmental crises we find ourselves in, largely due to human action. An important part of this for us, spiritually, involves confession – the prayers of admitting our sins, what we have done and failed to do, both collectively and individually, that hurts our relationships with each other, with the earth, and by extension, God.

As a liturgical and sacramental Christian tradition, our prayers and rituals are central to our spirituality, and both reflect and inform how we try to live out our faith in the world.

And so, the ecumenical season of creation has been adopted widely in the Anglican Church – a new season of the Church’s year with a focus on the environment that begins in September and goes until the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th.

The other piece I would like to highlight are the Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. This has been a developing document over the last 40 years and is meant to express what we believe God’s mission is. In other words, it answers the question of what we believe following Jesus should look like.

  1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
  2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
  3. To respond to human need by loving service
  4. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
  5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

In the Anglican Church of Canada, these Marks have been incorporated into our liturgy for baptism – one of our most important rites. They are the promises that new Christians are asked to make in response to God’s gift of love and grace. Throughout the year, the whole Church community is given the opportunity to reaffirm these promises in remembering our own baptisms.