COP26:
Prayers for those on the edge of emergency
Where climate change meets the most marginalised.
World leaders gather in Glasgow from this Sunday for a two-week conference – COP26 – that will shape our future and the future of the planet. As the United Nations warned in August, we are now at ‘Code Red’ for human-driven global heating.
Life on the edge where climate change meets the most marginalised is more precarious than ever. And we are convinced that addressing climate change is a matter of missiological urgency. We continue to bring you the stories we are told by the BMS World Mission workers operating on the frontline, in areas brought to their knees by the injustices of this climate emergency.
Decades of increasingly erratic rainfall renders much of Uganda’s agricultural land infertile and barely arable. Excessive unseasonal flooding and extended monsoons cuts children in Bangladesh off from schooling and vital healthcare. In Nepal increasing temperatures melt the Himalayan snow caps and extreme weather destroys live-giving harvests. In Peru, the devastation of the rainforest continues to blight communities.
The litany of stories is unceasing and accelerating. Our vision is to bring people to an experience of the abundant life that only Jesus Christ can provide. When we speak of abundant life, we think in physical terms as well as in the spiritual realm. The two are inseparably intertwined in the human experience.
As part of our commitment to this calling, in July 2021 BMS appointed Laura-Lee Lovering to the role of Creation Stewardship Co-ordinator. Laura is an environmental scientist who has been serving with BMS in Peru since 2012. These prayers of Laura’s featured here are formed not just by her Christian heart but by years of frontline experience as a scientist and at the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.
A prayer ahead of COP26
God of heaven and earth,
We praise you for the world you created, and we thank you for creating us to live and thrive together in it.
May your Spirit convict the hearts and minds of the world’s leaders attending COP26, make them conscious of their great responsibility to the generations of the present and the future and, ultimately, to you. Guide them into greater integrity and courage in their decision-making.
Unite your Church, Lord Jesus, that we would be agents of justice and hope for those who are already suffering the impacts of a changing climate, even as we repent of our part in its causes. Help us each to reflect honestly and hopefully on our own actions and teach us what needs to change.
We give thanks to you, our creator, for every good thing you have given us above and below heaven! We give thanks to you for our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whom we have our hope.
In your holy name,
Amen.
Laura’s prayer to make world leaders “conscious of their great responsibility to the generations of the present and the future” has never been more urgent. It is quite possibly the last opportunity to set out concrete plans to hit the targets set out at the Paris conference five years ago.
God’s intention for the earth was not for it to be exploited, but for it to produce and sustain life. To preserve God’s creation, we must limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. According to the August report from the UN, this is still possible, but only if widespread cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are made soon.
In April 2019, in collaboration with our mission workers engaged in battling the injustices of climate change, BMS signed its own Creation Stewardship Policy. As well as setting out the theological underpinning of our Christian responsibility to God’s creation, we made a number of commitments including: investing in theological and environmental education for UK based staff; implementing environmentally-conscious changes to our UK buildings and operations; and adjusting our procurement practices to reflect our commitment to creation stewardship.
As Christians living individually and corporately these commitments are a necessity – and so is prayer. Prayer is crucial in the search for long-term solutions, and we mustn’t forget the unimaginable extent of God’s love for, and power over, his creation.
A prayer for after COP26
Sovereign Lord,
We praise you as the author of history; we thank you that we can trust in your good plans and purposes for your world.
We are thankful for COP26 and the participation of the world’s leaders. We are grateful for this opportunity to have heard voices from around the world of those that are already being impacted by a changing climate.
We pray that the commitments made by our politicians and industry leaders will be upheld with transparency and integrity. May we as citizens and consumers hold our leaders to account, even whilst we commit ourselves and our churches to uphold our responsibility as stewards of God’s good creation.
For the earth is yours, Lord, and all of us in it! We praise you, God of creation, in whom we have our hope.
In your holy name,
Amen.
Prayers by Laura-Lee Lovering.
Words by Matty Fearon.
