5 May, 2021
Dear Friend,
Let’s start of with a personal note of explanation as to why The Pollinator is a few days late this month. I (Ed) am writing to you from Washington DC, where my wife Susanna and I have just welcomed Axel Maurice Cooper into the world. He is our third grandchild, second grandson, and is our youngest daughter Amy’s first child. As you can see, he is healthy, beautiful, and one more reason to celebrate life and increase our efforts to care for God’s creation. We want all the world’s babies to have a beautiful, flourishing world to live in.
Turning to the other end of life: Last week, 27 April, the evangelical world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Stott, who left us 10 years ago. Preacher, teacher, theologian, author, pastor to pastors, Stott was all of these and more. Scholar Michael Cromartie memorably suggested that he was perhaps the closest we evangelicals ever had to a Pope. Several years ago my wife and I visited the far corner of Wales where Stott is buried. You could not imagine a more humble, beautiful, and less Pope-like final resting place (see picture below). This may say as much about the man as anything he said or wrote in his lifetime.
But Uncle John was also a passionate lover of God’s creation, with a birding life-list in the thousands. Each of us working in the area of creation care are following in his footsteps. (For more on Stott, click here and here. And a new book, Stott on Creation Care, is coming this fall – read more and pre-order here.)
Last week’s event was celebrated with a service at All Soul’s Church in London, and his considerable contribution to the creation care movement was much in evidence. There was an interview with Peter Harris, co-founder of A Rocha (56:20 in the video; Stott’s encouragement was a key factor in getting A Rocha off the ground), and comments by Ruth Padilla DeBorst (59:40 in the video) make his concerns about God’s creation clear.
Through a curious (divine?) coincidence, on that same day Ruth and her family were saying goodbye to her father, René Padilla as he suddenly and unexpectedly entered God’s presence. Padilla’s life work, if a little less known, is just as important as Stott’s for us in the creation care movement.
“Creation care is a gospel issue”, is our rallying cry in the creation care movement. Written into the Cape Town Commitment and amplified and explained in the Jamaica Call to Action, the phrase rolls off our tongues easily, and captures the central place creation care has and should have for biblical Christianity. What most of us do not realize is that a lot of theological ground had to be cleared before a phrase like this could be accepted. And René Padilla led the way:
Padilla was best known as the father of integral mission, a theological framework that has been adopted by over 500 Christian missions and relief organizations, including Compassion International and World Vision. Integral mission pushed evangelicals around the world to widen their Christian mission, arguing that social action and evangelism were essential and indivisible components—in Padilla’s words, “two wings of a plane.” [Christianity Today; for a whole collection of Padilla articles back to 1971, check out this page.]
Padilla’s early work doesn’t specifically mention creation care or environmental stewardship – in the 1970’s and 80’s it wasn’t the hot topic it is today. But we would not be where we are today as members of a global creation care family without his groundbreaking work.
So even as we work to heal God’s creation on behalf of Axel and his generation (and those that may follow), let us be thankful for René Padilla, John Stott, and all those who have gone before us: giants on whose shoulders we stand. May our work be worthy of theirs!
With prayers for God’s guidance and provision as you also participate in this same ministry,
Ed Brown, for the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network
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Peter Harris and Bryony Loveless are bringing us a new podcast, Field Notes, with new episodes every two weeks. “Available wherever you get your podcasts!” Description below; more information and a trailer here. We are living in a time of crisis for the planet. Our overuse and misuse of water, energy and food has led […]
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Seaspiracy, a new documentary from Netflix, purports to expose some of the wrongdoing within the global commercial fishing industry. As with every situation, there are two sides to the story. Here’s a useful analysis: The film includes all the damning evidence and dramatic footage required to make the important point that industrial fishing is — […]
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The annual Justice Conference hosted by Tearfund will be online and worldwide this year on 22 May. It’s going to be 24 hours long, so time zones don’t seem to be a concern. Everyone can participate without losing sleep. (Thank you for that, Tearfund!) From the conference website: The Justice Conference is a global movement […]
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Our friends in Australia can’t get a break from a series of almost biblical plagues. Drought. Wildfires. Mice. and now… snakes? Booming mouse numbers have provided a rodent smorgasbord which, combined with the environment’s continued fightback from drought making for more cover, has created perfect conditions for snake species’ to thrive. Bigger, fatter snake species’ […]
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You heard it here first: John Stott’s Centenary year will culminate with the publication of new book that collects all – and we do mean all – of his writings having to do with creation care. John Stott on Creation CarePublication: IVP (UK), Sept 19, 2021 Preorder here: https://ivpbooks.com/john-stott-on-creation-careAll royalties go to support the work […]
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Rolling Stone has a great story profiling several Young Evangelicals for Climate Action fellows. Here’s a taste: That conversation eventually led [William] Morris to spend a month doing volunteer work with a Christian conservation organization in Kenya, cataloging rare bird species, mapping mangrove forests, and collecting data on coral reefs. His meals and his free […]
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Some of the headlines that have come across our desk in the last month: Inspiring Student in France Creates Environmental App to Motivate Others to Make a Difference Daily – A new report from the Cambridge Sustainability Commission reveals that the world’s wealthiest 5% were responsible for well over a third of all global emissions […]
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A relatively new prayer initiative, Climate Intercessors, got a push this month with an article in Christianity Today: “Asking God to Reduce Climate Emissions“: The prayer campaign is organized by former Baptist missionary Lowell Bliss and includes leaders from the Lausanne/World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network, A Rocha International, Youth With A Mission England, Christian Missionary Fellowship […]
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