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A Christian View of the Environment, David Shreeve

Since early times most Christians have used a public statement, The Apostles’ Creed, (first formulated in Nicaea in AD 325), to confess their faith in Jesus Christ. It begins:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

To most Christians the many divisions amongst their faith are not simply confusing - they are a mystery. So many denominations, sects, traditions, callings, customs, leaders… For those outside the faith it must all seem a conundrum that a man living a simple life two thousand years ago would be remembered and worshipped in so many complicated and often extreme ways.

Even the Lord’s Prayer, the main prayer of Christian worship, taught by Jesus to his disciples, comes in various forms, but whichever version is used, its environmental message is fundamental and clear.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9-10

Some bibles do not include what is known as the Benedicite, the Song of Creation. In some it appears in the Book of Daniel, but it has been part of the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1549, and is used in Anglican morning prayers and in Lauds in the Roman Catholic Office. The canticle covers much of creation of which the following is just a part:

O let the Earth bless the Lord: yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.

O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever.

O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever.

Christians have a particular responsibility to the environment because of the acknowledgement and worship of God as creator, redeemer and sustainer. Abuse of the natural world is disobedience to God, not merely an error of judgment.

Christians believe that planet earth belongs to God and that he entrusted it to humankind, made in his image and responsible to him. We are in the position of stewards, tenants, curators, trustees and guardians, whether or not we acknowledge this responsibility. It is easy to forget that the Earth is the Lord’s and we must include humankind as just part of the living world that we share with all his creatures.

And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1:31

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is represented as at one with the Creator, sustainer and redeemer of the natural order as well as of humankind. As the Old Testament stories tell of order coming from chaos, so Christ brings order and meaning to a world damaged by human greed and misuse, emphasising God’s care and concern for his creation. Christians, therefore, believe they have an obligation to offer worship and thanks for:

Creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life.

General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book

It seems strange, therefore, that as Christian churches celebrate the fundamental events of the revelation of God in Christ, there has been no day and time in the liturgical calendar when Christians specifically remembered God as Creator. A start was made to rectify this in 1989 when the then Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Dimitrios 1, suggested to all Churches that they observe 1 September, the Orthodox Church’s first day of its ecclesiastical year, as a day ‘of the protection of the natural environment’. On this day they would offer ‘prayers and supplications to the Maker of all, both in thanksgiving for the great gift of creation and in petition for its protection and salvation.’

Ten years later, the European Christian Environmental Network widened this proposal, urging churches to adopt a ‘Time for Creation’ stretching from 1 September to the second Sunday in October, a time especially extended to enable it to include the Feast Day of St Francis, patron saint of animals and ecology.

Be praised, my Lord God in and through all your creatures especially among them, through noble Brother Sun by whom you light the day in his radiant splendid beauty he reminds us, Lord, of you.

Be praised, my Lord God, through Sister Moon and all the stars, You have made the sky shine in their lovely light.

In Brother Wind be praised, my Lord, and in the air, in clouds and calm, in all the weather moods that cherish life.

Laudes Creaturarum, St Francis of Assisi

Christ’s demands go beyond the simple claims of justice, they require that any sacrifices be distributed according to capacity. This means that the main burdens of responsible action to help and protect our planet will fall on those in the more highly developed countries whatever their historical or present role in causing environmental degradation.