The Church and climate change:

An examination of the attitudes and practices of Cornish Anglican Churches regarding climate change

Supported by the Nuffield Foundation

Introduction

Since the publication of Lynn White’s polemical short essay ‘The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis’ the question of the Christianity’s complicity in the ‘Ecological Crisis’ has been raised. White argued that in contrast to the cyclical views of history and sacred vision of nature which were held by pre-Christian pagan religions, Christianity asserted a definite beginning and end to world history and a dominative perspective over nature which demonised the historical and natural worlds in light of the world to come. The new relationship to nature and history imposed by the ethos of Christian Europe viewed nature as an object which could be made to serve ends that originated from societal/religious goals, rather than ends which originated within nature itself.

Though White is not without his detractors, the claims of his thesis have found resonance with many in the Christian church who have attempted to re-evaluate their ethical and theological orientation towards the environment as a response. Today, the Christian church is increasingly taking spiritual and moral responsibility for issues related to the use of the environment, the need for sustainability, and the ethics of climate change. In particular, the churches which make up the Anglican Communion – the third largest Christian group in the world – have made environmental stewardship a central facet of their church’s mission. Beginning at the Lambeth Conference in 1968 and continuing to this day, the Worldwide Anglican Communion has repeatedly issued statements and resolutions which articulate its position that the Church must take moral and spiritual responsibility for the environment.

Despite the popular attention which was given at the 2008 Lambeth Conference to issues surrounding human sexuality and division in the church, Bishops who attended Lambeth 2008 were quick to point to resolutions which centred on the Church’s concern for creation (care for the environment, the promotion of the sustainability agenda, activism for the global poor suffering from climate change climate) as the most significant matters to be raised in the Conference.

The Church of England’s commitment to the environment agenda is reflected in a number of schemes and initiatives, ranging from the practical ‘Shrinking the Footprint’ campaign (which aims to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources within the Church by 40%), to a number of briefing papers produced by the Church which discuss the ethics of climate change as part of the Church’s broader social justice agenda. Moreover, since the mid 1990s theologians and religious ethicists from all branches of the Christian church have begun to re-articulate the Christian doctrine of the Creation with a specific interest in promoting ‘Stewardship’ (rather than classical notions of ‘Dominion’) as the preferred typology of humanity’s relationship to the ‘created’ order.

Aims and Objectives

In light of the emphasis which is placed upon the environment and sustainability agenda within the Church of England in particular, I wish to understand if members of Anglican congregations have made any appreciable moves to altering their attitudes and actions to reflect this emphasis. Are individual parishioners concerned with the practicalities of conservation and the issues raised by climate change? Are theologians, ethicists and the episcopate sufficiently translating their theological, ethical and pastoral concerns into the attitudes and actions of individual parishes around the nation? Despite active contributions from theologians and ethicists, there has been little social scientific research into how actual churches implement their denomination’s environment and sustainability agendas. This work will seek to examine if one’s involvement in a denomination with an expressed concern for the environment results in any appreciable change in one’s self-assessed actions and attitudes.

The pilot-project represented here is the first step in a larger project which will explore attitudes and actions stemming from environment and sustainability discourse as exhibited by members of Christian churches in the United Kingdom. This project will pilot its study in the Church of England’s Diocese of Truro and identify the extent to which the environment and sustainability discourse of the Anglican Communion has resulted in appreciable changes in attitudes and actions amongst individuals who are involved in regular Anglican worship in Cornwall.

Further information

For further information contact: Dr Michael W. DeLashmutt, Lecturer in the Study of the Christian Church.