Climate Change

Climate Change is already having an impact on our world and this will increase. 
It is estimated that by 2050 there might be 150 million environmental refugees, many from countries like Bangladesh where sea level rise will make the coastal plain uninhabitable.
Faced with these figures a change in our own lifestyles might seem to be of little purpose but it can and will make a difference.
A bigger question is how do we motivate those changes? In our liturgy each week we say sorry for our sins against God and neighbour but do we ever ask forgiveness for our treatment of the earth? What would be the impact if we prayed:

We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
We have abused your earth
And not cared for your creation as you have commanded…..

Would we drive our cars less? Recycle our rubbish more? Take the environment into account in managing our church buildings?
Living a green lifestyle can seem like an offputting set of dos and don’ts, but like any set of rules the key to them is a change of heart.

Revd Margot Hodson is a member of ‘Sage,’ Oxford’s Christian environmental group