As I started to read the bishop’s Easter musing in the diocesan paper, I found my heresy antennae being soothed by the gentle balm of that most remarkable unguent: an Anglican bishop who believes in the resurrection. Or, at the very least, a bishop who does a passable imitation of one.

It all turned to dust and ashes as I approached the end of the article. What really interests the bishop isn’t a man coming bodily back to life who claims to be God, claims to take our sin away, claims to reconcile us to his Father and claims that through him we, too, will come back to life and live in eternity with no more pain, tears or woe. No, what really interests the bishop is global warming.

From here (page 4):

And now, it is the very garden that is under threat. Our over-reaching and grasping ways, our neglect and cavalier attitudes have put such a strain upon creation. As temperatures continue to rise, weather patterns shift, species once named so long ago slowly disappear. Some make predictions, some deny and some believe, some downplay while others wring their hands. And what about us? How do we as a people of faith respond?

The last question that is put to us in the Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Alternative Services is: Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth? We respond by saying, I will, with God’s help. It’s time to find our gardening tools, to take instructions from scientists and climatologists, mystics and children, farmers and monastics, Indigenous elders and theologians. It’s time to tend the garden with all our might, to avoid the moment when, try as we might, we cannot reattach the stem to the root. After all, when we confess that God is our helper, anything is possible. Christ is Risen!