Dear Friends,
You may have heard in the news that the UN climate talks, COP30, are taking place in Belém, Brazil. This Sunday we will be lighting our eco candle and saying a prayer for COP30 at the start of our service. The words of the prayer are given below.
This COP, has been called the “Implementation COP”, as delegates try to take forward the promises made in the Paris Climate Agreement. Paris called for global warming to be limited to (ideally) 1.5 degrees, but as scientists predict it’s currently tracking between 2.4 to 2.8 degrees, there is work to be done.
It’s a good time, then, to remind ourselves of why we should care about the planet.
In the beginning, in Genesis, we hear God was delighted in what he had made. Humans were given dominion over everything on earth, but that is not permission for exploitation. We are made in the image of God and should show the same care, to look after the earth as God’s stewards. It’s not ours, as it says in Psalm 24’ “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it”. And as we know, climate change affects the poorest nations most. Isaiah, for one, calls us to do right, seek justice and defend the oppressed.
So let us send our prayers to COP30, as God’s stewards and seekers of justice:
Creator and Redeemer,
You call us to tend to the garden of your creation with wisdom and care
As the nations gather in Belém for COP30,
grant those who lead courage to act justly for the Earth and it people
Renew your Church with commitment to creation’s healing
That we may proclaim your life-giving love in all the world
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
Yours, for the beauty of the earth, and the beauty of the skies,
Wendy
Wendy Neale
Churchwarden