The Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel took place recently in Jamaica. The outcome was an urgent Call to Action. Here are some extracts:
Our discussion, study and prayer together led us to two primary conclusions:
- Creation Care is indeed a “gospel issue within the lordship of Christ”. ...
- We are faced with a crisis that is pressing, urgent, and that must be resolved in our generation. Many of the world’s poorest people, ecosystems, and species of flora and fauna are being devastated by violence against the environment in multiple ways, of which global climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, water stress, and pollution are but a part. We can no longer afford complacency and endless debate. Love for God, our neighbors and the wider creation, as well as our passion for justice, compel us to “urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility”. ...
Based on these two convictions, we therefore call the whole church, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, to respond radically and faithfully to care for God’s creation, demonstrating our belief and hope in the transforming power of Christ. ...
Specifically, we call for:
- A new commitment to a simple lifestyle. ...
- New and robust theological work. ...
- Leadership from the church in the Global South. ...
- Mobilization of the whole church and engagement of all of society. ...
- Environmental missions among unreached people groups. ...
- Radical action to confront climate change. ...
- Sustainable principles in food production. ...
- An economy that works in harmony with God’s creation. ...
- Local expressions of creation care. ...
- Prophetic advocacy and healing reconciliation. ...
Each of our calls to action rest on an even more urgent call to prayer, intentional and fervent, soberly aware that this is a spiritual struggle. Many of us must begin our praying with lamentation and repentance for our failure to care for creation, and for our failure to lead in transformation at a personal and corporate level. And then, having tasted of the grace and mercies of God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, and with hope in the fullness of our redemption, we pray with confidence that the Triune God can and will heal our land and all who dwell in it, for the glory of his matchless name.
The full thing is here.