This world is not my home?

I heard a quote supposedly attributed to evangelist Billy Graham (I have no idea if he said it), shown in the image here

As an ecotheologian or Christian writer/thinker, I don't find this a particularly helpful idea. Indeed, it's not even biblical.

I spoke this weekend at a conference of Franciscans on climate change. In their bible study just before my talk they were looking at the Lord's prayer. God's will is to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven; indeed Earth is in the emphatic position. Combine that for example with Romans 8 where creation has a future at the resurrection, and such silliness is undone. To be in the world but not of the world means not to be a part of a culture of sin. It does not refer to God's good Earth, which itself will be liberated.

Ride to Worship Week 2012

For the planet, the poor and your health, join in Ride to Worship Week 2012

 

The third annual Ride to Worship Week runs from Friday 5th to Thursday 11th October 2012.  To join in the fun, all you need to do is to cycle, walk, or use another form of environmentally friendly transport to get to and from worship. You can join in as an individual, a family, or as a whole church.  And if the scheduled dates don't suit, feel free to choose another time that does. Check out the Ride to Worship Week clip, read more about Ride to Worship Week, and register your participation at www.arrcc.org.au/ride-to-worship-week-2012.  Ride to Worship Week is an initiative of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC).

 

Presentations

One of the things I really like doing is speaking - underwater with a mouthful of marbles if need be. Apart from my day job that involves me presenting material, I get asked to speak at conferences, churches and so on. Most recently I spoke at the Ethos conference in Melbourne, where the invited speakers were  Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh. My workshop was on the groaning of creation in Romans 8, and what that might mean for an ecotheology/ecomissiology.

Then, I went to the TEAR gathering in Helensburgh (south of Sydney), which again featured Keesmaat and Walsh. This time, it was a workshop on talking about climate change in the church. I may work on a booklet (pdf) to download when I have more time.

Finally, I got to speak at a Franciscan Conference at Trinity College here in Melbourne, again on climate change and theological reflection.

I'm usually useless at emailing people my slides so I've decided to use Slideshare to upload them. The links follow. Note that they can be downloaded.

Groaning with creation
Communicating for change
A changing climate