Climate Sunday

As we mark Climate Sunday during Climate Action Week 2026, our District Learning and Development Officer, Siggy Parratt-Halbert, has produced a video, challenging us to be "a bit Eco"! You can watch her talk HERE.

Climate Sunday reminds that caring for creation lies at the very heart of Christian discipleship. From the opening chapters of Genesis, humanity is entrusted with the vocation to “tend and keep” the earth. Creation is not simply a resource to be consumed, but a gift to be cherished, sustained, and shared. The natural world reveals the glory of God, and our treatment of it reflects our love for the Creator and for one another.

Today, the climate crisis presents one of the greatest moral and spiritual challenges of our time. Around the world, communities already living with poverty and insecurity are suffering first and most severely from rising temperatures, extreme weather, food shortages, and displacement. Climate justice reminds us that this is not only an environmental issue but also a deeply human one. To respond faithfully is to stand alongside our global neighbours and future generations, seeking a world where all people can flourish within the limits of God’s creation.

This vision is explored beautifully in Victoria Loorz's Church of the Wild, which invites Christians to rediscover God’s presence in the natural world and to see creation not as a backdrop to faith, but as a living part of our worship, prayer, and discipleship. The book reminds us that the Church has always encountered God not only within buildings, but also in fields, forests, rivers, and wilderness places – spaces that call us into deeper wonder, humility, and responsibility.

Throughout Scripture, God’s people are called to pursue justice, protect the vulnerable, and live with gratitude and restraint rather than greed and excess. Jesus speaks often about the kingdom of God as a renewed and restored creation, where peace and reconciliation extend to all things. Our environmental choices – both individually and as churches – therefore become acts of worship and witness. Every effort to reduce waste, conserve energy, protect biodiversity, or advocate for change is part of our wider calling to love God and love our neighbour.

We give thanks especially for the work of A Rocha UK and the Eco Church programme, which encourages churches across the UK to place creation care at the centre of church life. Through the Eco Church awards, congregations are supported in practical action across worship and teaching, buildings and energy use, land and nature, community engagement, and personal lifestyle. Thousands of churches have already taken meaningful steps toward a more sustainable and hopeful future, demonstrating that even small actions, undertaken faithfully together, can have a powerful impact.

As a church community, Climate Sunday invites us not simply to reflect, but to respond:

• How might we live more simply, tread more gently upon the earth, and speak more boldly for justice?
• How can our worship, our habits, and our common life bear witness to the God who loves and renews all creation?
• Can we engage with the work of ECO Church across our Circuit?
• And how might we stand for climate justice?

All questions we perhaps need to reflect on, as Climate Sunday rolls by.