CONGREGATIONAL STORY
Going
Photograph courtesy of Tearfund
greener
Deborah Ford outlines Orangefield Presbyterian Church’s steps towards creation care.
W
e all know we’re living through an unprecedented environmental crisis – but how does this impact the life and ministry of your average urban congregation? The answer in Orangefield until recently? Not very much, to be quite honest. We give thanks, of course, for the land at harvest; we know God’s plan in Genesis 1. But when the nearest we get to the soil is our shrink-wrapped shopping from Tesco or Lidl, it’s hard to make those vital connections between care for God’s world and our daily routines. An intriguing quotation from the Ulster Farmers’ Union is: “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” Does the convenience of modern urban living carry innate spiritual dangers: ingratitude; thoughtlessness; selfdependence? Certainly, environmental issues never used to feature in Orangefield’s mission statements and business agendas.
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Herald April 2023
The catalyst for change came from our relationships in mission overseas. Through links with Cambodia, India and East Africa, we’d long been convinced of the need for integral mission, but it was a new partnership with Tearfund Rwanda in 2021 that softened our hearts and sharpened our spirits. Mention Rwanda and you inevitably think of genocide; reconciliation continues to be a major aspect of the church’s work there. But by far the biggest challenge for Rwanda today is man-made climate change. “The impact is huge, and complicates our work in so many ways,” says Tearfund’s Rwanda country director, Emmanuel Murangira. “There are so many changes in the seasons and rainfall patterns. The dry periods last longer. In
Does the convenience of modern urban living carry innate spiritual dangers…?
2021 many people died because there’d been no rain for two years, and so they missed two harvests. When it does rain, it’s so strong that it causes landslides, eroding the topsoil and destroying water resources and crops. When it floods, you lose everything. There’s no money left, and no harvest either: you’re back to being below the poverty line.” To put this in context, over 70% of Rwandans are subsistence farmers. 39% of the population live below the poverty line and 16% live in ‘extreme poverty’ (lacking even essential goods and services). Climate change is making the already desperate poorer, hungrier, and even less able to access health care and education, and so the vicious circle continues. “In essence,” says Emmanuel, “climate change is destroying all the benefits of development work. Pray that what we have achieved is not undermined. We need lifestyle changes to be lighter and kinder on the planet.” When you hear stuff like this, you dare not view creation care as an optional extra for those who happen to like that
