Care for Creation: Episode 4 - a Kairos moment

The last of four short films from the Bishop of Reading about the environment, and how we understand our relationship to the created world. Care for creation. Episode 4: a Kairos moment Questions to ponder: Shift 1: from “I” to “We”. The recognition of our interconnectedness; the importance of relationship right across society and across the world; the realisation that we are not a free-standing species but a part of a complex web of life, relying on other parts of the web for our ability to survive. Shift 2: from valuing productivity…to valuing life The engine of our economic system is the idea that we will continue to increase, every year, the amount that we consume. We are constantly encouraged to buy more, to waste more and throw away more so that we can continue to consume . This is self-evidently not good for the planet. Our economics is also based on the idea that the more people are paid, the more value they have to society. We have a new realisation of how this is simply not true. Those who bring the most value to our lives are the lowest paid and often most insecure and perilously employed. We have clapped them on Thursday nights. Money is simply not the measure of all things. But it is true that the more we seek money, the more we want to consume. Shift 3: from making small adjustments to being ambitious for a whole new way of being Many of us have tweaked our lifestyles. We have become more conscious, perhaps, of the amount of non-reusable plastic we use; of where our electricity comes from; of sorting our rubbish. These are all good things. But they are not enough by themselves. We have an opportunity to reshape our churches and our culture and society for a new, sustainable future. As a species we are capable of adapting fast. The diocese of Oxford has committed to making significant changes into order to reach our target of net zero carbon emissions by 2035, and each church and school within it is strongly encouraged to do the same. We all need to work on this, and we need to do it together, as Easter people. oxford.anglican.org/environment