Care for Creation: If we sleepwalk through the next decade, the tragedy will be irrecersible

The once rich tapestry of life on earth is now being degraded year by year because of the expansion and greed of a single species: our selves. Our life is inextricably linked to and dependent on the biodiversity of the Earth. While there are signs that the world is waking up to the environmental disaster we face, Britain is currently one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. This is a critical moment and Christians need to care. The Bible teaches us from Genesis to Revelation that humanity is part of God’s creation with a particular relationship with the natural world. We have been given a sacred responsibility to serve and steward and watch over the earth: the land and the water and all that lives in them. Restoring our relationship with the earth is therefore core to our own salvation, won by Christ on the cross. We need not just to conserve but to restore the natural world carefully and intentionally in the coming decade. The Church of England is not able to do this by ourselves but we can, and we should, offer leadership wherever we can. May God give us grace and strength to work together in this generation for the renewal of the Earth. ------- This is a recording of the Presidential Address to Oxford Diocesan Synod, given by the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, on 11 March 2023. A transcript can be found on the blog. Still images used in this film were all available in the public domain and available under creative commons licenses at the time of recording.