KEY POINTS:
Churches are urging their congregations to take action on climate change and other green issues.
Anglican, Catholic and other denominations are trying to address concerns about environmental challenges caused by global warming.
An Anglican diocesan climate change action group in Auckland is, for instance, running educational programmes on faith responses to "global climate change and the ecological crisis".
A series of seminars, which began in Mt Albert yesterday, is being run over the next six weeks, covering issues from a practical and theological perspective.
They are taken by Patrick Doherty, a member of St Benedict's Catholic parish in Newton, from the St Lukes Church hall in New North Rd each Sunday and are open to members of all faiths.
Mr Doherty covers the story of creation through to climate change and its effects, and discusses energy use, waste minimisation, weed control, sources of pollution and how to involve youth in protection of the environment.
The Unitec lecturer in community studies said churches were picking up on members' concern about the consequences of climate change.
These included social justice issues such as poverty caused by droughts and the creation of environmental refugees as the sea level rose.
Mr Doherty said people needed to share their bewilderment and feelings of disempowerment to find new visions.
He believed people's consciousness on climate change had shifted in the past couple of years, especially after the release of the Stern Review on the economics of climate change, the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth.
"What's happening with the climate is forcing people to take a fresh look," Mr Doherty said.
Young people were also more environmentally aware than past generations.
"For the first time we are realising that unlimited industrial growth is in collision with the Earth's resources. We are in for a pretty tough couple of centuries and that is providing extraordinary motivation."
Mr Doherty said the church was one of the few committed communities left in the Western world. Its bio-spiritual theme was that the planet was the divine revelation.
"We are all part of a sacred community. To degrade nature is to degrade us."
Mr Doherty also plans to run sustainable living seminars and workshops for the Catholic Church.
Dr Nicola Hoggard-Creegan, an Anglican theologian teaching theological responses to climate change and creation care, said it was part of the mission of the Church to care for creation.
"Christian theology teaches that humans have a mandate to care for the Earth as a part of God's creation."
Dr Hoggard-Creegan said the Bible said in the early chapters of Genesis that creation was good and that we were to have loving dominion and to care for the Earth.
The psalms also taught that creation itself sang the praises of God.
"Creation has its own rich interior presence before God. It follows that our relationship with nature should be one of respect and awe, and not just utilitarian."
Anglican churches had a keen sense of the sacramental nature of all life and their congregations were becoming more aware of the need to care for the Earth and to promote the health of the planet.
Dr Hoggard-Creegan said Christian churches took repentance seriously and that seemed to be what was needed in the area of ecology.
More recently Christians had been taught that there would be a renewal of the Earth, and that "we are meant to be sensing that renewal and working towards it now in Christ".
She said the social justice commissioner of the Anglican Church was taking steps to make climate change and ecological action a priority and encouraging churches themselves to work towards being carbon neutral. "Various churches have been taking action themselves for a number of years."
In April, Richard Storey, a freshwater scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, set up a New Zealand branch of the international Christian environmental network Arocha, established over 20 years ago.
Dr Storey, an Anglican, said it would initially work to help environmental groups in New Zealand.
"We are encouraging churches to get involved with local initiatives."
