An update from Archie Whymark, Climate Emergency Champion

I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to submit a monthly prayer to the Trinity Prayer Rota. This has caused me a great deal of heart-searching. What do we need to pray for?

It reminds me of the old story about a ship sinking in a storm at sea. The Captain says, “Does anyone know how to pray?” Fred, one of the passengers pipes up and says that he can pray. The Captain then says, “OK Fred, you pray. Everyone else put on a life jacket. We’re one short.”

The trouble is that we are more than one life jacket short. We have ice caps melting, sea levels rising, deforestation, crops failing, severe weather events, animals becoming extinct, etc, etc.

Unfortunately, our comfortable Western lifestyles are unwittingly causing many of the problems, by what andhow much we eat, how much we waste, the amount we drive our cars, fly on holidays, use energy, etc etc. However, it is unrealistic (and maybe unreasonable) to pray for us all to become vegetarians and stop driving our cars. So, I think, my prayers will mainly be to try and impact on our mind-sets and lifestyles. And to reassess who our neighbours are, where they live (Brazil, Ribble Valley, sub-Saharan Africa?) and how we can love them more effectively. Our prayers should help us to respect Creation and learn to tread lightly on the Earth.
The first prayer is scheduled for Monday, 3rd May, and the second for Sunday, 30th May.

Archie Whymark
Climate Emergency Champion
P S Please note in addition, that the Methodist Prayer Handbook 2020/2021, “The Earth is the Lord’s”, is an excellent Eco Prayer resource.