BBC Wildlife Magazine - Faith and Nature

I wrote an article for the March edition of  BBC Wildlife Magazine on the role religions can/should/must play in conservation.

Faith in Nature

How faith can help nature

In November 2015 I gave a talk at New Networks for Nature on how important world religions are for conservation. Here is a summary of the talk.

Curlew are wonderful birds that I have loved for ever. It is their almost comical small head, large bill and gangly legs that make me smile and their haunting call that evokes many feelings.

Copyright Andreas Trepte

Their Latin name is Numenius arquata.  I tried to find out why but couldn't, not at first anyway, but I did find out that Numenius of Apamea (in Syria) was a rather splendid second century philosopher who wanted to restore the ideas of Plato. He believed (putting it very simply) that living things couldn't be totally explained by referring to matter - which was cold and lifeless - or by the elements - which were in a constant state of change, Numenius believed that life must have some kind of spirit of the divine to animate it.

It actually turns out that Numenis is in fact related to the new moon, a reference to the shape of the curlew's bill, and arquata means shaped like a bow. So the Latin name for curlew is defined by its beautifully curved bill.  But I was happy to go with the philosopher because he makes an important point.

For much of the world religion plays a very important role in people's lives.  It is only in western Europe that we feel faith is personal and not to be talked about in public.  For the rest of the world religion defines individuals and communities, even whole countries.  This is a pie chart showing the percentage of different religions worldwide.

It is obvious that Christianity and Islam make up more than half the world's population .  Here is a map of the Christian world.

Christian countries are guardians of the Amazon, the Boreal forests, the Congo rainforest, sub Saharan Africa, the Arctic - to name a few of the precious ecosystems on earth.  Most of N America, the most powerful country on earth, is Christian. 

Here is a map of the strongholds of the Islamic faith.

The Indonesian rainforest is purely in the hands of Islamic countries, as well as most of N Africa.  The two biggest religions on earth are in charge of the world's most diverse ecosystems.

It is also a fact that 50% of North Americans say they trust their religious leaders more than any other group (gallup poll) and a BBC World Service survey showed that 75% of people throughout Africa trusted religious leaders over and above governments, NGOs and other civil leaders.

Religions also provide an interconnected group of people that spread over the earth, bound together across race, colour and political boundaries.  They are are also well established with roots stretching back through generations, tying people to the past as well as providing hope for the future.  All religions come with a sense of greatness outside of humanity, of sacrifice for the common good, of awe and wonder, an understanding of obedience and a sense of the long-term that goes beyond human comprehension. 

Perhaps a good example of this in poetry is God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  Hopkins was a Jesuit priest.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings

In fact many of the most renowned environmentalists/writers/poets have deeply religious roots, to varying degrees.  People like Wendell Berry, John Clare, David Henry Thoreau, Gilbert White, John Muir, Thomas Berry, Thomas Merton, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost. These are just a few I like very much.

But what we tend to do in western environmental circles is talk in terms of science and data, other ways are less important or soft - embarrassing even. This is a shame because all have a place at the conservation table - increasingly so.

So whether you see a curlew as a bird with a long nose that makes a lovely noise, or a "thought of God" as Thomas Merton (monk) would have said, or a divine spark of Lord Shiva or a sentient being struggling in the cycle of birth and re-birth, or a special creation of Allah - or simply Numenius arquata  - any of these are valid and all are important.

As we find ourselves in an increasingly religious world we need to embrace different ideas and points of view, because nature needs us to do so.

Birds of Paradise

This was published in The Tablet this week (20.6.15)

Birds of Paradise by Mary Colwell

Birds of Paradise by Mary Colwell

Room-based Christianity

It dawned on me the other day that western Christianity can all be lived out in buildings.  There is no need to leave a room to be a Christian in the UK, or indeed anywhere.  You can administer to the poor, treat the sick, protect the vulnerable, pray and sing all inside.  Services are inside, sermons are written inside and delivered inside.  People don't even need to look out of a window.  Outside a room, -  that is the concern of the secular world.  And anyway too much interest in falling fish stocks, declining birds and reptiles, polluted rivers, acidifying oceans and so on could be considered pagan. Leave it to Greenpeace and the RSPB.

This is so wrong-headed I despair, but it seems to be the way things are.

Over the last few months we've had some shocking statistics, not least the WWF/Zoological Society report that showed the earth has lost 50% of its wildlife over the last 40 years.  We are thought to be in the middle of the 6th mass extinction event known on Planet Earth.  George Monbiot is right to call for an end to the war on nature.  In terms of weather and climate - 2014 is the warmest year on record and we have no end of extreme weather events from droughts, temperatures, floods and storms  recorded from every continent.  Surely there is no one out there that disagrees that the earth is destabilising and thinning out to an alarming degree, and we are to blame.  (Oh hang on - Cardinal George Pell and many evangelical Christians don't - but apart from them).

As E O wilson says, we saw the end of the Age of the Reptile (bye bye dinosaurs) are coming to the end the Age of the Mammals and entering the Age of Loneliness.  He calls it the Eremocene, a time when humanity will be accompanied by scavengers and generalists like cockroaches, corvids and mice/rats.  The vision is awful, a world of people and a thin sprinkling of those species that can take advantage of our wasted earth.  Many places on earth will be uninhabitable because of temperature and sea level rise. People will be squashed into temperate zones and fighting over fresh water, food and living space.  Gone for ever is most of life on earth, especially the specialist creatures, the beautiful, diverse splendour that makes this amazing planet unique and full of wonder.  But many think we will have gone the way of the Dodo before that happens, unable to thrive in a depleted and polluted world. Its all very depressing and demoralising.



Good news then Pope Francis is to write an encyclical on the environment, give an address to the UN General Assembly and call major faith leaders together to discuss religion and climate change (see recent Guardian article).  In October he said that climate change and loss of biodiversity were already bringing about cataclysmic change to the earth, causing poverty and distress to many, especially the poorer nations.  When the world's leaders meet in Paris in 2015 to finalise their commitments to reduce carbon emissions the Pope will be expected to make a major contribution. That is such good news, long overdue and very welcome.  1.2 billion people are supposedly Catholic, although I suspect far fewer actually do live and breathe the faith in a pure way.  It is undeniable however that Pope Francis is a moral compass in a lost world and is perhaps the only religious leader to be listened to in high places and able to draw crowds of thousands wherever he goes.  He is a religious superstar, a magnet for those looking for another voice that is far away from money power and fear.

What will he say I wonder? I hope he hits the right note and speaks to the heart of those who have the functioning of the Catholic Church in their hands, inspiring them to speak out with passion.  But I suspect in the UK (and most of the West) that won't happen. In many rich countries Catholic leaders are ageing, often worn out and over stretched.  Their problems are many and varied ranging from lack of vocations to falling numbers in pews to child abuse. The "environment" is an annoying addition to a very heavy workload.  Most (not all) clergy are theologians and historians by training and know little about nature/science.  As the Bible has little to say about humanity's relationship with the natural world that is easy to translate then it is not at all obvious what to do.  SO the best solution is to take an easy way out and equate "environment" with "climate change" - and as that will affect poorer nations first - just give the job to Cafod. Job done.  That is what has happened in England.

Cafod do a very good job in raising awareness of what a warming world will mean for poorer nations. In the US The Catholic Climate Covenant also does well, along with others.  None of them however have a position on biodiversity and habitat loss, so half of the equation is gone already.  Giving the job of the "environment" to Cafod in England is one good step, there are many, many more. But those steps require vision, interest and understanding. They require bishops to make clear, informed statements that relate faith to nature and that inspire others to act.  It requires a knowledge of what is happening to the oceans, to the soils, to the forests, to cities and plains and fields.  It requires religious leaders to look at the earth and ask big, far-reaching questions. It requires asking people to make changes to their lives  - what we eat and how we live day to day - and that might not be popular.  In short it requires a lot of energy and time and I don't think that is possible.

Sitting down to write this is hard because of years of indifference. There was a flurry of interest after Sound of Many Waters in Bristol in 2008 where I organised an event a month in Clifton Cathedral based on different environmental themes.  It was successful and well received.  An environmental group was set up to discuss environmental issues and advise the bishops, but was disbanded after a couple of years.  Since then there is only Cafod.  No bishop for the environment, no advisory group, no interest - no opinion.

Room-based Christianity has to come to an end, for all of our sakes.  I hope Francis urges 1.2 billion people to love the earth and wonder at it.  Marvel, be horrified, feel fear, be challenged, experience transporting joy and experience the reality of death.  Out there is as much the face of God as in a room, no matter how beautiful. Until we re-kindle those feelings and join all the dots then the "environment" will mean little, no matter how many dire warnings, awful stats and no matter how many fine words.

As an example of how far  English Catholicism has travelled from the reality of the world I remind you of a edict by the bishops of England and Wales in 2011.  They urged Catholics to re-connect with their Catholic identity and revert to eating fish on Friday's - to show the world who Catholics are. How depressing, ignorant and tunnel visioned is that? The oceans are in dire trouble.  Didn't they think about this?  Or perhaps it doesn't seem important? Don't they believe the stats or perhaps they are simply unaware?  Wouldn't it have been far, far better to ask Catholics to be vegetarian for at least one day a week - even better vegan. Now that would have been a thoughtful, contemporary response.

So will Pope Francis make a difference?  I hope so, but it is a hopeful light that doesn't feel too strong right now. Not a beacon shining out to show the way, more a tiny flicker in the gloom.  I Hope Francis has a good long look at my favourite verse from the Bible: John 10:10 "A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came so that you may have life - life in all its fulness."  Life in all its fulness  - that phrase alone is worth meditating on for a very long time.

I hope Francis brings back the passion, the care, the compassion, the sense of justice, the love of life and for all its living things.  I hope he states a refusal to accept greed and money as the drivers that are devastating our world. I hope he urges every person of faith to bang tables, shout for change, demand an end to this madness and cruelty and destruction - demand that we all live in a kinder, more caring world and have a vision of abundance not desolation.

If all religious leaders stood up to be counted and said "not in my name does this continue" then perhaps we could see change.  Perhaps.

Is it only humans that experience emotions?

It is high time we stopped batting off the difficult and potentially highly inconvenient questions around animal sentience. Let's just recognise that life other than humans have feelings and emotions says Mark Bekoff from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Very true says Christine Nicol from Bristol University, who is applying animal behaviour to our treatment of livestock.  She has already made big improvements to the lives of chickens by helping formulate the recent legislation for higher standards which took account of her research.  Hens, after all, are domesticated junglefowl with many of their original instincts and behaviours, to ignore them is downright cruel.


    Commercial free-range hens indoors

There is a tangible move in some spheres (nowhere near enough though) towards living in a kinder, more compassionate world.  I am very glad, the pain caused by a cold us and them approach to life on earth is reaching desperate proportions as meat eating soars and more and more animals live short, brutal lives for our plates.  I am not against meat eating by any means (my family eats meat) but I find I am increasingly anxious about the way we treat life on earth - domesticated and wild.

What research is increasingly showing is that we are not that different from our furry and feathery fellow travellers.  We are not the only species to feel empathy, grief, affections, bonding, trauma, distress, pain, depression, joy etc.  As the evidence piles up I hope it filters through to the rest of us in society.  We need to hear these things, we need to be able to let this extraordinary and challenging research seep into our thought processes and help guide what we buy and what we eat.  Human beings are complex creatures and it takes time for us to change our ways, but the more we can identify with other life, the easier it will be to push through meaningful reforms.

I love the idea that a chicken can display delayed gratification, can recognise and react to distress in other hens and can communicate with their chicks while they are still in the egg.  My forthcoming book on John Muir gives examples of how he recognised that farm animals have similar feelings to us.

Tim Birkhead, Professor of Animal Behaviour at Sheffield told me recently that it is time for the science of ethology to look at emotions more carefully.  He believes the stage has been reached where this is no longer a taboo.  His study of guillemots on Skomer (the subject of a Living World on Aug 17th, 6.40 am) has convinced him these long-lived, communal birds who form life-long partnerships feel real affection for each other.

Science is challenging the long-held notions about what it is to be human and it seems theological research is a couple of hundred years behind the times.  Religion is too important to the way the world works for it to carry on as though ideas on what constitutes a human being has never changed.  It has and continues to present new aspects at an increasingly fast rate.  Fascinating and challenging ideas are arriving thick and fast and the world's faiths and would do well to consider them.

Tale of Two Women

I know two old ladies, both are in their 80s.  The first was a nurse and in her early twenties she met a man she fell deeply in love with.  She said she was crazy about him and couldn't believe it was possible to feel so strongly about anything or anyone.  She was head over heels.   As a devout Anglican she wanted her fiancee to share her faith before they married.  He tried very hard to please her.  He accompanied her to church every Sunday.  He wrote to the bishop of the area where he lived to ask if he could discuss Christianity and marriage but was turned down and told to go to the local vicar.  He did so but found a dry, unenthusiastic cleric who had little time for him, and he could not find a message he could take to heart.

This honourable man told my friend he could not become a Christian but would come to church with her every week and always support her and would help her bring up their children as Christians - perhaps one day it would make more sense to him.  Deeply upset she went to her own vicar who told her that it was wrong to marry outside her faith and quoted 2 Corinthians: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darknesss?  My friend went home and the next day finished the relationship with the love of her life.  She told me that she cried herself to sleep every single night for a year.  The young man went onto marry someone else and when they had their first child, a boy, he wrote saying they had named him George, the name my friend and he had chosen if they were ever to have sons.  This was too much and she asked him never to contact her again as the pain was too great.  He never did.

It was not until she was 62 that my lovely friend met her husband, a delightful, gentle widower who went to the same church.  He walked her home one morning after a service and a few months later they married.  They had 15 happy years together before he died after a long and debilitating illness.  Of course they never had children together.  The lack of a family is a source of deep sorrow to this day, and from knowing her as I do I would say she would have made a wonderful mother.

We have talked about this quite a lot.  I asked her if she thought the advice from all those years ago was right.  She lowered her head and sighed.  No, she said, I think the advice I was given was wrong.  When I asked why she said that for all her married life, although she was devoted to her husband, she had felt guilty.  Why?  Because she often still dreamt about her first love and never had the heart to tell her husband.  I loved him, she said, he was a very good man and a wonderful husband, but nothing could ever compare to the passion I felt all those years ago.  I must be a terrible person, she said, because I could never confess what I really felt and dreamt about.


The second old lady is Catholic and had a child 60 years ago.  The baby had a congenital problem and died 6 weeks after birth.  A letter of condolence from a devout Catholic aunt said how sorry she was to hear about the loss of the baby but how fortunate it was the little girl was baptised in hospital before passing away, because, "it could have been so much worse."

By this I think the well-meaning aunt was referring to the teaching about limbo.  As Catholic teaching tells us only the baptised can see God, then a baby who is unbaptised can not be fully in heaven.  This is an ancient belief, not official doctrine, and the idea today is that you can believe it if you wish, but you don't have to.  Back then it was much more accepted that babies went into some kind of holding place until God decided to admit them.  I think I am grossly simplifying, but as far as I can remember that is the idea and what I was taught at school. Whatever, it is a cruel theology, quite bizarre and extremely hurtful for those who are suffering terrible grief.

Two women, two Christian denominations, two sad stories.  I don't quite know what to say about them, they seem so heartless and ridiculous.  Faith should bring love, hope and comfort and not blight people's lives with joyless dogma that heaps burning coals onto already painful wounds.  Would it happen today I wonder?

Guilford Faith and Environment Course

From Reflections of a Curlew

Tonight (12th January) I am giving the opening talk at a series on Christianity and the environment organised by St Joseph's Catholic Church in Guilford. The essence of my talk is here. This blog can be used by anyone who would like to comment on what is said tonight (and for anyone else).

The earth is held in the love of God, it reflects God’s presence into our lives everyday. Cherishing and caring for this most wondrous of planets, and celebrating this great gift is at the heart of Catholic Christianity. And never has the time been more right to bring that belief once more into the centre of our lives. Now is the time to act for our future, the future of all our children and the future of creation itself.

“We are now to the point where we have lost ½ the world’s forests, ½ of the world’s wetlands and ½ the world’s grasslands. We are systematically eradicating habitats that make up the world’s ecosystems.”

James Leape, Head of WWF International

“If the religious people of the world, who of course make up the vast majority of people, were to become interested in saving biodiversity, which is after all the creation, and make it part of religious faith then they might be able to join scientists in an alliance and actually save what is left of life on earth”

Professor E.O. Wilson, Harvard

"The fate of the creatures which share our planet lies entirely at the hand of mankind - it is within our power to protect them or watch them become extinct. Let us choose the first route."

Sir David Attenborough

"The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago, had they happened to be within reach of predatory human hands"

Havelock Ellis

Sound of Many Waters, a year long series of events held at Clifton Cathedral, was the result of a lecture I gave there in 2005 called The Pope and the Iceberg. That first talk challenged the Catholic Church to take seriously its role in protecting the earth from greed and exploitation. As a documentary Producer at the BBC’s Natural History Unit for 20 years, and a Catholic, it had become a burning issue. I want to see the Church act to protect what is an astonishing planet, but I want it to act not just because we are increasingly discovering the extent of the ecological crisis, but because it is the right thing to do – it is the honour and the duty of the Church to promote sustainable living that respects all the natural world.

To Catholics the earth is sacramental; God is revealed in creation. Catholicism is an incarnational religion that believes the creator of the universe became human and lived on earth. Catholicism is intricately bound to matter and life and therefore protection and care for the earth should be central to Catholic teaching and practice. Sound of Many Waters was therefore an attempt to show how our many and varied relationships with nature can be expressed in our faith tradition.

Yet there seems to be uncertainty about our relationship with nature. The reason I have this impression about the Church is because over the last few years I have been asking a particular question based on a personal experience. About fifteen years ago I went to the high Arctic to film a rare species of duck called a Spectacled Eider. This rather bizarre bird lives out its whole life above the Arctic Circle and even over-winters sitting in the middle of the frozen Baring Sea. It is a quite extraordinary and awe-inspiring little duck.

I stayed on a remote island and filmed a female brood her clutch of eggs and then watched the ducklings waddle off into the Arctic Ocean to begin their mysterious lives out of the way of human influence. Very few people see Spectacled Eiders and so this was a great privilege. A few years later I telephoned the man who owned the island to ask how the ducks were doing and his news was deeply shocking. The year after I left he went back again to check on the four females that regularly nest on his island. All four had been shot sitting on the nest. No one had taken the bodies for food, they hadn’t used the feathers or the eggs; they had been shot simply for being ducks in America. I put the phone down and wept, not just for the wickedness of the people who had carried out this callous act of violence but for the senseless loss of magnificent creatures.

My question to lay Catholics, religious and the Church hierarchy alike is this – If Christ had been walking over that island and found those dead ducks, would he have wept? Not just for the people who had killed animals, but for the loss of the ducks themselves? Overwhelmingly the answer to that question from the lay community is yes, but the hierarchy is split, with many saying no – the reason given is Christ wouldn’t weep over that which is not human.

This story illustrates my point that there is confusion about our relationship with nature, and as long as this remains there will be little incentive to act as a Church. Therefore it is time to decide for ourselves what the natural world really means to us, how we can put that belief into practice and how we can be visionaries for others.

How can we be agents for change in this world of consumerism? How can the Christian well spring of joy and hope be brought to the environmental table, along with the gifts of the Holy Spirit - courage, wisdom, temperateness? How can the Option for the Poor and the Common Good be what dirves the decisions we make about the future of the planet?

“Not in the midst of life’s tumult, nor in the world of pleasures round, does God show himself, but in the inspiration of nature, grace, light as a breath of fresh air, in a still small voice”

St Jerome

Shifting Plates and "Where was God?"

Over the Christmas break I watched again Mark Dowd's "Tsunami - Where Was God?" on Channel 4, a sensitive and wide ranging documentary on differing religious responses to the Tsunami in 2004.

In trying to come to terms with a belief in a God that could let such disasters happen Mark tried to question a Muslim geologist about the geological need for massive earthquakes that can cause tidal waves that then create so much suffering. He repeatedly asked the same question in different forms - is there an alternative design for the earth that God could have come up with that didn't require such violent outbursts that kill thousands? Is it possible, as a geologist, to think of an earth that is designed in such a way that negates earthquakes and volcanoes? If God created the earth and all that goes with it, why build into the system earthquakes that can wipe out thousands at one stroke? But no matter how he asked this question the same answer came back - the earth is designed so that catastrophes like this happen to force us to see our sin and teach us about our wrong ways - teach us a lesson.

Many, including myself, find this attitude hard to understand, but Mark's question is deep and profound because it goes right to the heart of what we are.

In short, the answer to Mark's question is no, there doesn't seem to be an alternative design - as far as we can tell one of the major reasons why there is life on this planet is because of the movement of the earth's tectonic plates.

(For those who need a geology brush up on what plate tectonics means there are many youtube videos and wiki type sites - but basically the earth's surface is made up of rigid plates that "float" on a hot fluid like mantle causing the plates the grind, crunch, slide over and under each other creating earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain chains, deep ocean ridges, island chains etc).

If we didn't have plate tectonics to recycle the earth's crust, bring new material to the surface, release gases into the atmosphere, build mountain chains and form deep basins that could be filled with water then the great diversity of life would not be present and could not have evolved. Everything about our shifting, changing planet creates niches and opportunities for life to take hold. It also forces change, driving species evolution and adaptation. Stability does not create burgeoning life - change, and often violent change, does.

Fascinating isn't it that pure energy on a scale we can barely imagine, is constantly at work in this astonishing universe, and on this particular planet in this little solar system, that phenomenal energy heaves around slabs of crust and creates the right conditions for life. But life doesn't come cheap and easy, it comes as a result of great forces and instability - life is a resilience born out of fragility that we see all around us in the natural world.

Rare Earth by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee describes the role of plate tectonics and the maintenance of life, it is a wonderful and insightful book that lays out the scientific reasons why life is so uncommon, "maybe we really are alone" says the strap line. And perhaps so because no other planet in this solar system has tectonic movement - and no life that we know of.

It is a pointer to the fact that God didn't design the universe for our comfort and prosperity; deeply embedded into its very fabric is energy that produces creativity and destruction, violence and quiescence, burgeoning and collapsing. For me this has nothing to do with teaching anybody any lessons and has everything to do with a God that defies our imagination and leaves us gasping with incomprehension at the audacity of a creator who has set in motion something so spectacular.

And we humans have to fit in where we can and recognise with humility what we are - beadlets of life born out of resilience and evolutionary drive - and with a capacity for greatness. We have to accept that a cooling earth will crack and shake, that volcanoes will erupt, that meteorites will bombard, that continents will shift, and we humbly acknowledge that is what it is to be a human on planet earth, with all its tragedy and horror as well as beauty and magnificence.

For nearly all our evolutionary history humans have been fighters for survival against changing climates, natural disasters, ferocious predators that want to eat us and against other creatures that vie for our resources. For all our hunter/gatherer existence (99% of the time we have been fully modern humans) we would have been only too aware of the fragility of life and the forces for good or ill that were a natural part of life on earth. Today most in the comfortable West are fed, warm and housed with little understanding of the earth we live on - but we still have the instincts to fight for survival - the adrenalin to fight or flee, the fear of the dark and of spiders and snakes, and the desire to understand forces beyond our control. And this legacy leaves us with a body that is ready for action but too often with too little to do - we find ourselves being warriors without a war. And therein lies many of our problems I suspect.

So Mark - thanks for a fascinating programme but the horror of the tsunami is not retribution for sin, it is a painful demonstration of the real place we humans have on this cooling, dynamic earth - and a reminder that not everything is arranged for us. The alternative scenario is a very boring creationist model where God waves a wand and ping! all is as it appears now - and then we run into real trouble when we try to understand disaster, because only a God of retribution could make a beautiful earth turn round and bite.

And thank you for a question that brings to the surface so much we rarely discuss about the very nature of humans and life on earth.

Christmas Podcast

Happy Christmas 2009. This is a reflection on robins at Christmas. The naturalist is Chris Sperring and the music is played by Annette Dunn on a baby grand that once accompanied Ella Fitzgerald in Hong Kong.

Get your own playlist at snapdrive.net!

I wanted to make the point about how we need to view the ordinary - like robins - as extraordinary, because unless we see them as special or sacred (whatever that means to you) then I don't think we will do enough to protect the natural world. It is the ordinary that we live with, that colours everyday, let's treasure it.

Sunday Service from Windsor

Vedic Dancer

Last Sunday Service on Radio 4 was from our Many Heavens, One Earth - Faith and the Environment event. The music you can hear at first is from Shesh Besh, an Israeli/Jewish/Christian ensemble and their music is wonderful. Hope you enjoy it, it was a truly inspirational celebration that took place in the Waterloo Chamber in Windsor Castle.

For all the pictures - which are great - go to the ARC Windsor Event website.

The celebration was the central part of the 2 day event whcih invited faiths around the world to commit to long term plans to help change our relationship with nature. The celebration section was designed as pure art and spectacle, allowing people time to think and marvel, not just worry and make plans. It looked at the whole span of time from the beginning of time itself through to the burgeoning of life to the crisis we are now experiencing right through to the restoration of harmony.

Prince Philip and Ban Ki Moon were present

At each stage a different faith either danced, sang, chanted or ritualised their beliefs about our relationship with nature. Shinto priests clapped and bowed to the spirits of nature around us, a Vedic dancer danced the beginning of time itself, a Persian group sang from The Conference of the Birds and a full-throated, bigger than life gospel choir sang about the crucifixion from the point of view of the tree of the cross (The Dream of the Rood) and the Canticle of the Creatures.

Conference of the Birds

Audience in Waterloo Chamber



March to the Castle

Imam


Gospel Choir from Baltimore



Daoist Monks

Sikh Prayer

Shinto Ritual

Sally Magnussen was the Narrator

A Buddhist Monk and an American Baptist

Windsor Castle

I'm going to write this up properly but this is what I've been doing for the last week or so. I helped organise the Windsor Castle faiths and the environment event that ran between Monday and Wednesday this week. i had meant to do a blog each day, but of course it was so busy there was never a moment. But I will put photos and highlights up, but in the mean time here is the official Palace video.

Missing Vision

Reform Club

Last night I went to a dinner debate at the Reform Club in Pall Mall (I think that's where Phileas Fogg made a bet with his pals about going round the world in 80 days). the main speaker was Bishop James Jones of Liverpool and the other guests were a mixture of water engineers, environmental scientists and a few religious leaders/representatives.

James Jones is a thoughtful and sensitive man who has a lot to say about our spiritual relationship with nature, which he has been thinking about seriously since 2000. He said his turning point came when he visited many schools in his deanery and realised that the vast majority of children were really worried about the future of the earth and felt we ought to be doing something about it - and that was 9 years ago. It was a wake up call to find out how a Christian leader could respond - and a book called Jesus and the Earth was the result.

The following discussion was not so much a debate as a chance for a varied group of people to have their say - and it struck me very clearly that everyone does have something to say about the environmental situation, but we are all told too much and not listened to enough.

One of the main points was - where is the vision we need to strive for to encourage us to have a change of heart? Who is helping us to see the future? Who is the inspirational leader pointing to another way? As I wrote in the Guardian article last month - we are truly lacking a vision of something good that is worth making sacrifices for - doom and gloom won't do it. People also wanted to know how scientists and environmentalists can help. Bishop James's answer rang true for me - he urged them to use better language, more accessible, inspirational, poetic even. Again it echoed the saying that my colleagues and I at ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation) often talk about - if the word you want to use isn't in a poem - don't use it, because no one loves it enough!

Others asked how we will get those of us who live in plenty to accept less? What role does the religious understanding of love play? Is this deep down a matter of justice, not climate change or biodiversity? Are religious leaders just too timid?

James Jones urged all religious leaders to act together, to stand up and proclaim what they believe.

I put my oar in and said I thought much of the time religious leaders were acting at the wrong level. I firmly believe that most people who are trained in theology are not necessarily good at telling people about science. But all of them without exception are experts about what it is to be human. The environmental crisis like any other breakdown is the result of a broken relationship that we have allowed to disintegrate under our noses. It is not deliberate very often, but it is all -pervasive. Religious leaders need to get us back to the basis - what is a human being? How do we fit into the web of life that we know so much about now? What is science telling us about what we are? We are physically the same as the rest of the known universe, the same matter, chemicals, elements. We don't float about as semi-angels, we are mammals and have an ecology. So what is it to be human? How should we behave towards others, including the natural world?

Anyone who has been to one of my talks knows I define a human being by 4 relationships - our relationship to God, ourselves, each other and the earth. So far religious leaders have been very good at the first 3 and only recently starting to talk about the 4th. But all have to be in balance to be a flourishing person. This is the level at which religion enters the environmental arena, it sets the ground rules.

I'm looking forward to the big Windsor Conference coming up in November, it is a great pity we won't have James Jones there - he would add a great deal.

He finished the evening with an extract form a poem, God's Grandeur, by Gerard Manley-Hopkins:

Photo by Chris Sperring

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.


And for all this, nature is never spent;
  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went
  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Cross Crabs

You know what a crab looks like when you disturb it on a beach, it raises up and starts snapping at you and looks all cross - woe betide you if you get too close. Well writing a public article on religion is like disturbing loads of cross crabs. All of them would happily inflict a sharp stab of pain if only they could get a good grip. Honestly! You can understand it if I was writing about hell fire and brimstone, or telling people they were wicked and doomed to hell or how they were utterly wrong and only the god-fearing saw the true way - but I'm not.

But it says something about how people perceive religion as a perpetrator of something bad, not good, and who's fault is that? Probably a legacy of how badly religion has been taught for so many decades, but it is now much better. Partly because people feel threatened by faith, (but not sure why), and partly because most religions (Catholic included) are bad at portraying a face to the public that allows them to understand the very heart of what this about - which is love. All people see is the regalia, the pomp and ceremony and the conflict - which is such a pity.

If only they saw the people like Pat Clarke, or Fr Leo Dolan, who I am meeting tonight and who works with the poor and landless in a violent and lawless part of N Brazil, or Sr Dorothy Stang, who was murdered fighting for the rainforest and the poor, or the countless other men and women who are driven by love to do great things for others.

Dorothy Stang

Yes there are religious wars - but decrying all religion because of extremists who have no understanding of the heart of faith is like saying everyone who enjoys a sherry at Christmas is an abusive alcoholic.

Yes some faiths have teachings that are out of step with modern ways of thinking, and the Catholic objection to birth control is right up there with that one. But the way to tackle these is to discuss openly and with respect - not throw insults. I have a lot to say on this, but not here, but I understand that population is a massive issue and we have to all take this very seriously. By far the best way to do it is to reduce poverty, educate women and ensure a society cares for its citizens. In every instance when these things happen birth rate declines, irrespective of the religion of that country.

Come on cross crabs, put your claws down, read what I'm really saying and then tell me that urging billions of people to care for the earth, and each other is bad, but don't just see "religion" in the title and fire off without trying to understand.

City of Angels

Pat Clarke is inspirational, he has worked with the street children of Sao Paulo for over 33 years, built an arts centre, a pastoral centre and a countryside retreat. He works with them, not imposing, not coming in with solutions, but walks alongside the families who live in conditions we find it hard to imagine. A woman who visited the arts centre, where the children learn to draw, paint, make ceramics etc, described the visit as bieng in a state of grace.

What will happen when these extraordinary men of God die out? No one is coming up behind to take their place. Pat is a Holy Ghost Father, the rag pickers of the Church he told me - we go where no one else wants to go - and said with not a trace of arrogance. He is true to his calling - not many of us would chose to spend our lives surrounded by open sewers, rats and gangs with guns.



The children are allowed to see the inspirational side of life, paint, draw, listen to music - and he also takes them out to a countryside retreat place he managed to buy called The City of Angels.
Here children can be children, experience peace, space, nature and learn about the natural
world. What Pat is doing is wonderful. If you can help keep this going by sending a donation please do.
clarkepat2000@hotmail.com

Two articles this week...

I had 2 articles published this week:

Woodpigeon flying over an organic wheat field in Somerset

The Tablet article - Faith in Farming is on the future of farming, based around a remarkable man Victor Barry (see earlier post).

Severn Estuary

The other is in a brand new magazine called Justice on the Severn Estuary.

Buddhism - no Bossy Bits.

My 12 year old is fascinated by Buddhism so every Tuesday I take him to an introduction to meditation meeting in Bristol. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, the buddhist "ministers" (for want of a better word! What are they? Not monks but ordained) are lovely and respectful and treat him like an intelligent human being. He meditates on generating loving kindness for 1/2 hour and then there is a talk on some aspect of buddhism. He listens intensely and sits perfectly still. He loves it because it is "Christianity with the bossy bits taken out"

I am finding it a great experience too and am benefiting from the atmosphere and concentration on goodness. Filling the world with loving kindness is not a bad aim and it seems to work. A couple of days ago my husband ate the last walnut whip. I had being eyeing it up all day but delayed gratification until the Channel 4 News. 2 minutes to 7 I shot down to the kitchen - but gone! Outrageous. But instead of sitting on the sofa in a sulky mood I found myself trying to send vibes of kindness - not bad for a beginner.

Some of my Christian friends are worried about his exploring - I can't see why. Any desire to find out our spiritual nature has to be a good thing and Buddhism generates a beautiful and calm environment. He has stopped fretting so much about how far down his bottom he can pull his trousers and has set up a small meditation corner in his room. Wonderful.

Wobbly Tables, Big Ideas

Gave a talk in the Cotswolds last night, I love eccentric English events.  No one had a key to get into the village hall so we all sat outside while the vicar, Methodist minister and Catholic priest made panicked calls on mobile phones, so when we did get in no chairs out, screen had to be balanced on wobbly table, no cups of tea ready etc.  All very good notes for a novel if I was a writer, and I'm always delighted at how lovely people are in mini crises.  But what I have noticed recently is that ideas which seem so second nature and obvious are new and revelatory to others who are not versed in ecology and environmental issues.  Two people recently have said how they had never thought about how interconnected we are with all of life and not just observers on the outside.  Others wonder if nuclear testing underground is shifting the earth on its axis and causing climate change.  One lady asked me once if we are leaving huge holes that collapse under the sea when we extract oil - did that cause the Tsunami?  Many others have asked why it matters if animals go extinct because we have survived very well without the dodo.  And from a faith point of view a clergyman wondered how a right relationship with the natural world could be "sold" from the pulpit, it seemed such a strange idea.  There is so much information out there about everything now, people can look up, find out about, immerse themselves in any subject but it is so hard to make sense of it all.  I feel overwhelmed by the amount of politics, history, literature, the arts, I feel I should know,  but very few can be polymaths, not me for sure.  It is easy to be confused.  But many people are talking about these issues now and that is great.