Creation Care - Praying for God’s earth
The Revd Rosie Ward has written the third in a series from the Diocesan Environment Group about caring for God’s wonderful creation.
This article was written for A Rocha UK’s magazine, ‘Root & Branch’, and is used here by permission of the editor Jean Morgan.
In the face of the huge global problems of a hotter, more polluted, less biodiverse and less predictable planet, we can easily feel hopeless. But we believe in a God of hope. Not just ultimate hope – that one day Christ will return, and will renew and transform the whole of creation – but ‘proximate’ hope: the things we can do within this world which reflect that ultimate hope of new creation.
There is much we can do by joining in practical action with others who are actively concerned about our world, but Christians must also engage prayerfully: this is fundamentally a spiritual issue, and only God can change the human heart.
How might we pray?
Here are just a few suggestions and examples:
- Confession – for repentance among Christians for past apathy and carelessness, and our part in the spoiling of God’s earth.
- Thanksgiving – which prevents us from taking for granted what belongs to God. Give thanks for everyday things and pray for a good use of them: water from our taps, for example.
- Praise – joining with the choir of all creation (1 Chronicles 16:29b, 31-33; Psalm 148).
- Intercession – for those suffering the worst effects of climate change; for Christians and churches to engage with the climate & biodiversity crises.
- Silence – waiting on God.
- Creative prayer: prayer walks, prayer stations, pilgrimage, ‘wild worship’ …
There is plenty in the news to turn into prayer. We can pray for truth in the public square to prevail over misinformation; for politicians and multinationals to exercise wisdom and courage beyond their own ambitions; for the urgency, courage and commitment needed at COP27 in November. We can give thanks for progress, however small, and pray for all that needs to happen. And that we may be a part of the solution.
Resources
· Central church and diocesan resources and season of creation resources for Creationtide (1 September – 4 October), which can be used at anytime.
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