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SUMMER 2021
The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God
Connection
PRESBYTERIAN
3 Connection
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MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY
PRESBYTERIAN
PHOTO CREDIT: THE REV. SHANNON BELL, CARIBOO PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NAZKO, B.C.
By the Rev. Ian Ross-McDonald, General Secretary,
The Life and Mission Agency
God spoke and the wonder of crea- tion emerged from chaos. All crea- tures great and small emerge from cosmic disorder and nothingness at God’s word. The sun and moon and stars; stream and oceans; sage, goldenrod and trees; herons, moose and salmon; and finally, humans cre- ated in God’s image. And God bless- es each day of creation by enjoying its goodness.
But where God creates and builds, humans tend towards destruction and undoing to the extent that much of God’s creation is being returned to chaos. God’s abundant love spills over into creation and we are called to care for the earth even as the Creator has cared, protected and enhanced the
earth. More often than not, we have chosen to act in ways that have set the world on a course of destruction through denial, indifference, greed, cynicism and ignorance. In addition to being given the biblical mission to care for creation, we have been given, by faith, a covenant with God that includes all creation, the courage and responsibility to name things hon- estly, the humility to confess our sins and errors and the grace to turn in a new direction. These gifts uniquely position Christians to name the truth of what is happening to the world: not climate change or climate crisis, but climate violence. And to confess, as the Accra Confession (link) puts it, “our sin in misusing creation and fail- ing to play our role as stewards and companions of nature.”
We have heard and preached sermons that exhort us to be good
stewards in God’s beloved creation. We have written, read and adopted repor ts at General Assembly that out- line who the church and Christians are to be in relationship with creation. But knowing better has not meant that we have done better. In The Long-Legged House, Wendell Berry writes,
“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”
The church has an important role and responsibility to play in ending the violence against creation and ensuring we live in right relationship with it. And we have been given the
hopeful and prophetic ministry to speak and act in fulfilment of our God-given mission to care for the world that God loved and for which Christ died.
Resources that help equip us for change and action for justice for creation:
• Living Faith: A Statement of Christian Belief (especially chapters 2 and 10): presbyterian.ca/living-faith
• Living in God’s Mission Today by the Committee on Church Doctrine: presbyterian.ca/gods- mission-today
• The Accra Confession (endorsed by the General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada in 2007)
• Ecological Justice information presbyterian.ca/ecological- justice
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