‘The Biblical creation stories give human beings privilege and responsibility in relation to the earth and every living creature. We are called to be partners with the rest of creation and co-partners in the ongoing creative and renewing activity of God. Such partnership goes wrong when human beings act as if the whole earth were simply for their present benefit.’ (taken from The Methodist Church’s Environmental Policy)
Trinity is working towards a sustainability award for churches called ‘Eco Church’ from A Rocha UK – a Christian conservation charity working with The Methodist Church, The Church of England, Tearfund and Christian Aid.
Sustainability is “the endurance of systems and processes”. The organising principle for sustainability is “sustainable development”, which includes the Triple Bottom Line - three interconnected domains of our environment, society, and economics.
In the context of church, we are a body which consumes resources as we conduct our mission. The Biblical challenge to us is to ensure that we minimise our overall impact on the global environment, and conduct our mission in ways which preserve these finite resources as far as possible, and to do all we can to limit climate change.