Climate Change Day of Prayer

Churches urged to pray in the lead up to UN climate summit

Churches throughout Ireland are urged to pray for a successful outcome to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

Christians of all denominations are praying for a just climate deal as well as reflecting on the beauty of God's creation and considering what practical steps they can take to prevent further climate chaos.

Rev Donald Ker, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, has urged people to join him in praying about the issues that result from climate change.

"In part our prayers will be prayers of confession, for we have not always been responsible stewards of the earth, which God has entrusted to us," he says. "Our prayers will also focus on the needs of others, particularly those in our world who are, through poverty, most vulnerable to the detrimental effects of changing weather patterns. Our prayers will be prayers which seek God's help to raise our voices and change our lifestyle so that God's ways of justice, which include climate justice, may be known."

The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, the Most Rev Alan Harper, says that the climate change we are now encountering is unprecedented and that humanity is to blame.

"We have it in our power to destroy the life chances of millions on our planet by the unrestrained emission of greenhouse gases and other agents and we have the power to change our habits so that the earth and its peoples and its biodiversity are delivered from the unbridled greed and arrogance of mankind," he says. "Let us resolve to change and let us seek from God the moral courage to make our resolutions into lived reality. Let us re-commit to being responsible stewards of the earth God gave us to care for."

Many churches observed a Climate Change Day of Prayer on October 4th. An initiative of the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, the Day of Prayer was endorsed by a number of church leaders and aid agencies as well as Prof John Sweeney, president of An Taisce and a member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"What is clear today is that the future of our global home is threatened by our own actions and selfishness," says Prof Sweeney.

"Already the poorer members of our global community are suffering severely from climate change not of their making. We have only a few years before dangerous limits may be breached from which recovery may be almost impossible. At this time Christians should pray that our leaders rise to the challenge facing them in Copenhagen and help fashion a world in which those who come after us will have options which our short-sighted decisions might otherwise deny them."

The eco team at Dundrum Methodist Church led their harvest service on the 4th and were invited to play a role in the harvest service of Centenary Church, Leeson Park later in the month. The Methodist congregation in Nenagh joined with local Roman Catholics, Baptists and members of the Church of Ireland in a four-hour prayer vigil that included music, readings, silence and prayer. Passers-by were invited to drop in and were given background information about climate change and ideas for how individuals may respond.

Catherine Brennan SSL, chairperson of Eco Congregation Ireland, an interdenominational environmental awareness project that was instrumental in organising the Climate Change Day of Prayer, says,

"Our abundant and beautiful planet, God's creation, is in peril today from human-induced climate change. Our scarred planet, the peoples of the developing world and future generations are most at risk. We need to take this opportunity to ask for forgiveness, to reflect on the need to live in more sustainable ways and the need for a renewed theology of creation. We pray too for wisdom, courage and compassion for our world leaders as they prepare to meet for the crucial summit in Copenhagen."

Reuben Coulter, chief executive of Tearfund Ireland, says that the natural environment is one of the greatest gifts that we have been entrusted with by God.

"We are refreshed by its beauty and energised by its bounty," he says. "Let us unite in the creative power of prayer to mobilise our leaders, to unleash innovative solutions and to bring healing to a scarred world."

 

See www.ctbi.org.uk/climatechangeprayer and www.ecocongregationireland.org for further information and a wide range of valuable resources, including prayers, sermon outlines and climate change facts.