THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - 20 February 2008

The Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool

I’m tempted to ask you to guess in which continent this scenario took place. I was giving a presentation on Christianity and the Environment to about 250 church people and asked them how worried they were about the future of the earth. When only about 20% confessed any real anxiety I expressed genuine surprise at their lack of concern. At this point a man stood up and berated me. “Well Bishop” he protested, “Jesus told us not to be anxious about anything. So why are you coming here urging us to be worried?” The meeting cheered him on. “What‘s more” he added, to further applause, “the Bible tells us the earth will come to an end one day.”

I have to confess I was rendered speechless. Not because I hadn’t heard such views before but because I hadn’t expected to hear them there. The continent? Africa. The country? Nigeria. It’s a richly endowed democracy with oil, water and luxuriant vegetation. It nevertheless struggles still with poverty debt and corruption. But it doesn’t yet feel the ravages of the changing climate that’s wrecking some of its sister countries in Africa.

George Bush in the twilight of his Presidency is currently touring that great continent taking forward the agenda he and Tony Blair launched at the G8 Gleneagles Summit two and a half years ago. You may remember that with Bob Geldorf and Bono in attendance they launched their plan to help Africa

Those who feel that not enough has happened since then might be encouraged by the President’s visit. But many observers continue to worry. What’s the point of helping Africa with aid, trade and debt relief if at the same time we change the climate and ruin their harvests? It’s like giving with one hand and punching them with the other.

Our problem is similar to the Nigerians – we don’t actually feel the issue. We talk about global warming. But we, the people, don’t yet feel the full affects of our actions. It’s one of the responsibilities of leadership to anticipate the future and to lead where the feelings of the people have not yet gone. One of the weaknesses of focus–group-politics is that it feeds the desires and not the duties of the electorate.

As America now comes closer to electing George Bush’s successor, Africa and the rest of the world wait nervously for a leader who can anticipate the future and make that vision shape the present. It seems to me (and this is what I should have said to my friends in Nigeria) that this is what Jesus was doing when he got us to pray for God’s will be done on earth as it’s done in heaven. Such a manifesto could be described as the earthing of heaven.