An avalanche of submissions were received through the recent ‘Submissions for the Emission Reduction Plan’ campaign. Ka pai to all who submitted.

This shows that motivated parishes can get the ball rolling for environmental transformation.

Inspired by our recent discussions in the church and the opportunity to make a submission on the government’s response to climate change, Fr Philip from St John’s in Johnsonville wrote the following article.

“For many years now our Church leaders have been reminding us all of the necessity of recognising our stewardship role within the family of the Church. Humanity has a stewardship role over the whole of God’s great creation, and the reality is, that we have been so proud of our success in achieving all that the Industrial Age has achieved, that we did not notice the environmental damage that much of this development was built upon. Recent years have shown us that our lack of stewardship of the earth has been leading us on to the creation of global temperatures that are disastrous for life as we know it.

I make no apology for passion in this matter since 60 years ago my Hallowe’en night was spent cowering in a disintegrating house on the Southern Foreshore of Belize City as winds 150-200 miles per hour, caused by Hurricane Hattie, raged through the City, bringing in 20 feet of sea water and killing over 300 people as 80 % of the City was destroyed. The Government of the time got the message and built a new Capital City up-country at Bel Mopan. Such events were not frequent, but these days they are annual events everywhere in the world, accompanied by other disastrous events like flooded cities and communities; forest fires on such a scale that they literally destroy whole communities; areas where drought has completed destroyed the source of water that communities need to survive, and the observed melting of the earth’s glaciers at the Poles. A consequent rise in the ocean level now threatens low-lying islands. The warming seas are killing the polyps in our coral reefs, and world-wide wild animal life is threatened as their habitats are disappearing.

The COP26 Conference has just ended, and I suppose that we must be grateful for the progress that has been made, although I share the disappointment of many. Our Pacific Islands are threatened by the rising sea levels, as are those of my beloved Caribbean Sea. Progress in this field is going to be slow it seems. We in the Church surely have a role! The Diocese is, I believe, going to discuss the possibility of Church premises installing Solar Panels which could make those premises carbon neutral thereby freeing the premises of the need to get their electricity from the national grid.

Is there anything we can do here as a response to this international problem? I am tempted to think there is! We are ideally suited to commit ourselves to such a project, and as an individual member of the congregation I would want to offer my financial support to such a project, in addition to my present commitment to the Parish, as a way of identifying myself with the needs of those threatened by Global warming.”

In fact, it was Fr Philip who got the ball rolling straight away on the idea of solar panels with a meeting with the parish vicar Ben Johnson-Frow. Ben, who’s background at university was in a Masters of Environmental Resource Management, remembered seeing churches and almost whole villages in the UK taking to solar power while on sabbatical 3 years ago. “It might be possible here,” he thought. It should be possible here! And what if it wasn’t just us at St John’s, but churches right around the Diocese? And what if our witness to our environmental care by visible solar panels on our roofs led to schools and council building thinking “hey, why don’t we do that?” The greater the take up, the great the positive environmental impact, and the lower the cost through economies of scale – enabling individuals and families within our communities to also have access to this technology to lower their power costs and environmental footprint.

So, last week vicar Ben talked to our Diocesan Manager, Ben Pringle, who set up a meeting with David Reeves from Solarworx to discuss how this might work at St John’s and then to be able to take this idea further at Diocesan Council level. In three weeks, we have moved from an idea preached in church and picked up on and championed by Fr Philip, into action. From a theology of Care for Creation to lived missional action and environmental transformation!

From our sentence for the day when this message was first preached:

“What does the Lord require of us – to seek justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.”

By Ben Johnson-Frow