'Think of a World' - Climate Change Conference
25th November 2006
Keynote Speech given by Revd Graham Carter, President of the Methodist Conference

I would like to say in the beginning that I absolutely agree with the Minister that this is the most serious issue facing the world because of the reasons he gave. The issues of world poverty that we face at the moment will be incredibly greater if we don't do something (about climate change), issues of world peace will be incredibly greater if we don't do something, the issues of migration and so on, the problems we have now will pale into insignificance unless we do something and unless we do something now, it is not an issue we can postpone.

The second thing that I would like to say is that actually we can do something about it. The Minister referred to the MakePovertyHistory campaign, that was successful because people were mobilised, individuals took up the issue and came together and the Church's influence in that was quite considerable. You may think that people like Bob Geldof and Bono got all the publicity but actually the movement was largely because of the influence of people within local churches so what I want to say at the very beginning is that it's the major issue but we can actually do something about it if we grasp the issue now.

The Church tends to move very slowly. That's a truism really. It goes hand in hand with being the Church and there was a time when I thought the Church was very slow with grappling with green issues many years ago. Then it seemed as though we were jumping on a bandwagon that had already got moving. But I believe very firmly that there is an undergirding theology which makes it imperative for us as Christians.

The title that I have chosen is 'From Garden to City' and people have said 'what on earth does that mean?' Perhaps I ought to have clarified it. It is about the images of perfection that there are in the Bible because the Bible starts and ends with images of perfection. You remember the old hymn 'God has given us a book full of stories. It begins with a tale of a garden and ends in the City of God.' We start with the Creation stories. One of the Creation stories is the Garden of Eden. Those stories are stories both about how the world is and how it should be. The story at the end, the vision of St John, is not of a garden but of a city. I thought that teasing out some of the issues around those two as well as looking at what the Scriptures say in between actually gives us a good theological grounding for our ecological concern and the things we are about.

So we begin with the perfect garden. There are two stories of Creation, something that people often forget when nowadays there seems to be some sort of argument again between the theory of evolution and the Creationists. Those two stories are totally incompatible which is a reminder that they are not intended as scientific or historical stories in our 21st Century sense of history. They are stories about the world as it is and as it should be. The first story is a story of how the world is created in six days, beginning with the separation of light and darkness, going through the creation of earth and water and all the animals and finally, the pinnacle of Creation is the creation of humanity and it is that story which says that God said to the human beings, 'rule over the earth, have dominion over the earth'. We will come to that in a moment or two. The second story is a story that tells of the Creation of the earth and male human being is created first. Then the animals are created to see if that provides a right relationship but the relationship is only complete when woman human being is created. So the order of the stories, in a logical sense, is incompatible. But they are talking about different truths and it is those truths that we need to grapple with in terms of the underlying theology and our belief about the world as it should be. So we look at the first story and in the first story each of the days tells of the creation of various things "and behold it was good". It is a story about the harmony of the way things were in the created world and the point is that there is that harmony. It is not that the separate items of creation, because they were on separate days, don't relate. It is because the whole thing interrelates. The role of human beings is within that interrelationship. But it is not quite within that interrelationship because we have the question of God saying to human beings "have dominion over the animals" or "rule over the earth". Now that is the key phrase that until recently the church has tended to live with. All through the industrial revolution that was the theology that motivated us; we have the right to do what we like with the world because God has said "have dominion" and "have rule over the earth". Now I believe that is a mistake in theology, the linguists who study Hebrew will argue over the precise meaning of the word where God says to man in the story "have dominion over the earth" but it seems to me in the context of the rest of the scriptures that God is not saying that you have the right to do with the earth what you want. It is much more a question because the second story if we look at the two stories together, is much more a question of seeing humanity and the right relationship with God because the second story, the story of the Garden, tells the story of the beginning of human sin and it is when human beings get above themselves (we often talk about the story being a story about disobedience to what God wants) but it is actually when humans get above themselves. Now if you put those two things together then it seems to me that what is meant by the giving of responsibility to humans is just that - the giving of responsibility, not the right to do what you want. It is the responsibility to reflect God's rule in the world rather than ours. That second story of the entry of sin is when human beings begin to do their own thing and not reflect God's rule. It is summed up in a quotation in a book that I have been reading by Roger Gobley "the Green Faith". He says "we have dominion not because we are able to divulge ourselves in thoughtless excesses but because we are expected to be God's representative on earth". That I think is the basis of our green theology. We are given the responsibility of doing things with the earth and in the earth that we can if you like do what we like but the real responsibility is to reflect what God wants us to do. That I take it is the theology that comes from the stories of creation. Now the other image of perfection is the image of the city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Why should it be a city rather than going back to the image of perfection in the garden? Well here are some of the things that a city offers that a garden doesn't. The city in the biblical context and in our medieval context was the place, the town, that had a wall built round it. Nothing to do with our modern concept that a city should have cathedrals. But it was a place where there was protection from outside onslaught so that when the terrorists of the day arrived, people could flee to the city and be protected by the walls. It is a place of protection from outside danger. It is a place that offers at least a modicum of security within, again because of the walls, because of the community, because there is a certain order about the life within a city. The chaos that the Bible is always afraid of is always prevented by the order that is in the city. The city is a place where resources are available, that's still very much the case today. In country after country you find that there is a drain from the countryside to the city when there are any sort of problems for this very reason. Earlier this year we visited China and there too there is a drain to the cities from the countryside because people see the city as a place where resources are available. Within the city there is also development of a community because people live together and they have got to work out how to live together. If you are outside the city, yes there is a community, but it is a community that is less structured and less organised because there are not the pressures of people living together. Community life is another element of the city. Employment or support - one of the dangers of course where people think there are resources in the city and they flock there, is that they find that there aren't the jobs that they thought were there but actually the city provides support which is not available outside. If you are in the countryside and you have nothing to support you, there are few people to give you support. In the city at least, if you sit by the road and beg there is a constant stream of people who are passing you and a few of them might drop a few coins in your hat. One way or another, whether it is organised support of government benefits or human kindness, the city is a better place to get that support if there is no employment. But in the perfect city, the important thing in John's image is that it is a city redeemed by God's rule in Christ. The main thing about John's image is that it is the Lamb who is at the centre of the city. It is that rule of God that makes the city the perfect city. That too, I think, offers us a theology that is relevant. It might seem strange to talk about green issues and saying that it is the city that offers us a theology to work with, but I believe it is very much so and we will come back to some of that.

Of course the Bible is not just about the garden and the city. There is a story in between. These are some of the elements that help the development of our theology. First, from the Psalms, the obvious quotation "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it". We sometimes say that we believe we have the earth on trust. Well, I think there are ways of perhaps discussing what exactly we mean by that but certainly in terms of Christian theology, the basis of what we do with the earth is that it is given to us by God. Again, it reflects that creation story that it is not our right to do with it what we want. Yet in Psalm 8 there is what to me is a wonderful psalm "what are human beings that you care for them? And yet you have made them little less than God". Again there is an attempt to express that relationship that as human beings we have the ability and we have to a certain degree the right to act in a God like way. Yet that psalm is couched in a praise to God and the focus is not on our human right but the fact that although we have this tremendous ability, it is in the context of what God has given us.