Bishop of the Environment

The Church of England has appointed its third ‘Bishop of the Environment’, the Right Revd Graham Ussher, Bishop of Norwich. The Archbishop of Canterbury offered a justification:

“The crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are the most grave and existential we face: as human beings, as a Church and as a global community.”

In other words, the changing climate is likely to destroy the Church, our nations and entire species. What a faithless analysis of the world. I might expect this from a secular, centre-left politician, not a servant of Jesus Christ with a confidence in God’s protection. Polluting, wasting energy and failing to appreciate the wonderful planet upon which we have been created are things we should all seek to avoid. But is our society in danger of being destroyed by them- rather than God’s coming judgement and Christ’s return? If only this good prelate, while advocating careful stewardship of resources, was quoted saying:

“The crises of sin and rejection of the gospel are the most grave and existential we face: as human beings, as a Church and as a global community. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.”

I wonder if he doesn’t say it because he doesn’t believe it.  The Bishop of the Environment himself is quoted on the main Anglican website saying:

“The care of creation is at the heart of the Anglican Communion’s marks of mission and I hope it will also play a key part in the life of every church community and every disciple of Jesus Christ.”

Funny that, because I was not able to find any of his predecessors from the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 19^th or 20^th centuries. If it is at the heart of Anglicanism, it has been well and truly concealed from public gaze. Perhaps I am wrong. Maybe the Anglican Church has always been concerned about the physical environment, and only in the last few decades when it has become a popular, it has decided to reveal that it was campaigning on this issue all along.

The next ‘big thing’ will be veganism. Advocated now by a fringe, it will become a mainstream preoccupation of the cultural elites and woke brigades within the next few years. I will save the Church of England some time, by drafting a part of their press release for 2030:

Veganism has always been at the heart of Anglican belief and practice. The Christian duty to care for animals is paramount to our faith and the appointment of Bishop Amelia Hurtington-Green as the lead bishop for vegan affairs with our Church is a demonstration of our very real commitment to stamping out all forms of animal consumption by 2040. She looks forward to working with parishes to ensure that no animal-based products are consumed or used, ideally in time for the next cultural obsession and episcopal appointment to show we are dealing with it.

The state church now attracts fewer than 2% of the national population to its worship and the numbers continue to freefall. I would suggest that this is the very solution the Anglican bishops have both sought and created: by focussing on secular issues and failing to preach the age-old gospel of sins forgiven through Christ, their churches are emptying. As more shut and others become unsustainable, the denomination’s ‘carbon footprint’ will decrease accordingly. Bingo!

Image by Dave Hostad from Pixabay