Creation: Understanding and tackling climate change
Resources suitable for use during a Climate Sunday event, the Great Big Green Week and COP Conferences
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Resources suitable for use during a Climate Sunday event, the Great Big Green Week and COP Conferences
Go to: Introducing Discovering God to find out more about this new series of resources.
Here’s a way to introduce the theme in the context of our everyday lives.
Loving God,
thank you for all the beauty you share with us;
from the powerful lion to the tiny worms in our garden,
and the place you have given us among them.
Amen.
Before you end, come together to revisit the theme of rest and recreation and to pray.
Creator God,
forgive us for the mess we have made of your planet,
for our lording it over other living things.
Help us to make amends
and to treat your beautiful world with respect and care.
Amen.
Download the #ChallengeCOP activity calendar for daily ideas to challenge yourselves to take action during and after Great Big Green Week and/or a COP Conference. Decide whether to act as a church/group, or household, or both! If acting as a church, consider holding a Climate Sunday event in the run-up to a COP Conference.
Here are three examples from it you could use to keep the theme and exploration of creation and climate change going, by sending out a follow-up activity each week:
Take a trip to a ‘Dark Sky Reserve’ and soak up the starry night sky. No ‘Dark Sky Reserve’ near you? Just see what you can where you are. Make a party of it, and take part in a star count.
Pimp your pavement! Plant tree pits (the circle around the base of street trees) on your street with flowers or plant neglected planters (ask the local Council first!) with vegetables for anyone to take home and cook. See Growing in your street and register with Incredible Edible to find more resources.
Have a bring and share lunch together using only fruit and vegetables grown in the UK.
Linking the introductory activities to the theme and Bible passage.
According to this ancient creation story, over six days God created the earth, beginning with the day and night, and continuing with water and dry land; populating the land with vegetation; creating the sun, moon and stars; filling the waters, the skies and the land with animals; and finally creating man and woman, tasking them with the care of everything which had been made. Content with creation, God rests on the seventh day.
You will need: magazines, scissors, glue, a large sheet of paper
Look at all the parts of our world that are described here, and how they interlink with one another. There couldn’t be:
Take out just one of those elements because we have destroyed it with our actions, and the rest will begin to become unbalanced and flounder. For example, it is said that without bees, humanity will die out within four years. How we treat God’s creation really matters.
This story of creation shows us what an incredible, complicated and beautiful place the earth is. We are asked to care for it, to make sure that natural balance is maintained, but climate change is a result of our failure to do this: affecting the make-up of our atmosphere, the temperature of our waters, the ecosystems and demand for certain foods putting pressure on the natural world. We need to nurture this fragile balance, rather than upset its equilibrium with the way we live our lives.
Science has shown us that there is now an urgent need to respond to the crisis created through climate change. The COP Conferences are important moments in this as world leaders meet to make progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. See also:
BBC Teach Introduction to climate for key stage 1 and 2
BBC Bitesize Understanding Climate
How does this image make you feel?
Choose from these activities to help people explore the theme. We don’t include timings or age-differentiation as Discovering God is designed for all ages engaging together. Use the spiritual styles (as defined by David Csinos) indicated by the coloured letters to help you plan, and cater for the different ways in which people connect with God.
Spiritual styles key: Word, Emotion, Symbol, Action. Find out more.
Go outdoors together and make the shape of a seven-spoked wheel on the floor using twigs, as big as you like. You can do this together, or in small groups. The gaps in between are each one of the seven days of creation. Encourage people to search for natural objects, and fill each segment with an image representing what was created on that day.
In pairs, talk about something you created – a cake, clothing, something in the garden, something at school. What did it feel like to create something? How did you feel on completion? Think about a time when someone else destroyed something you had made. How did that make you feel?
Go somewhere where there is enough grass for everyone to stand on in their bare feet. Make sure you have checked the area in advance and made it safe from anything sharp (or anything rather more squidgy!). Feel the grass between your toes, its coolness and dampness under your feet. Then allow a few moments of quiet reflection. Ask: How does it feel to be so closely connected to the earth?
Get to grips with what climate change is, what it does, and what you might do to help slow it down. Watch the Friendly guide to climate change video together. Are there any of the things the narrator suggests, that you as an individual, or you as a group, could do? Make a promise to change one thing about your living habits that someone else will hold you to (see #ChallengeCOP27 for daily challenges during each day of the COP27 Conference which you can take part in as individuals or as a group).
Craftivism is a creative way to gently spread the word about tackling climate change. Have a go at the ‘Dream-making’ project, and allow people to think of their dreams for a healthy planet where all of God’s creation is cared for. Alternatively, simplify the project and use cloud-shaped pieces of card. Invite people to think of their dream and write ‘I #daretodream of’ (pre-prepare for younger children) and then write or draw their vision for a beautiful, healthy world e.g. plastic-free seas.
Siggy Parratt-Halbert is a Regional Learning and Development Officer in the Methodist Church, with a particular interest and expertise in environmental issues.