Secular dictionary definition of “Gospel”: The proclamation of the redemption preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which is the central content of Christian revelation.
Rowan Williams’ definition of “Gospel”: Less carbon dioxide.
Some 3,000 Christians gathered in Westminster for an ecumenical service before joining tens of thousands of campaigners in a march through the capital today to call on the UK to take the lead at next week’s UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.
Dr Rowan Williams said the human race had until now not been very good news for creation, as he warned that the failure to tend to the health and wellbeing of creation was already having negative effects on the lives of the most vulnerable communities in the world.
He said: “We are to be bearers of good news for the world that God has made. Not for any one little bit of it, not any one community at the expense of others, not even for humanity at the expense of everything else in the universe. Good news for all of creation.
“He said: ‘We are to be bearers of good news for the world that God has made. Not for any one little bit of it, not any one community at the expense of others, not even for humanity at the expense of everything else in the universe. Good news for all of creation.'”
Well actually – he’s right. The whole of the cosmos is up for redemption, not just us humans. Jesus came for the whole of the created order. Anything less, and He’s not the Saviour of the WORLD.
Yes indeed, except the second coming of Christ and the new heavens and new earth are not going to be hastened by Rowan’s climate posturing.
Although, I suppose it could provoke God to the point of losing patience and putting an end to it all.