The following is a compilation of responses from three Dunedin people to the original posting, Climate Change and the Gospel.

From Greg Hughson:
Monday 12 October, 2009
My name is Greg Hughson. I have a Masters degree in Biological Science and a Bachelor of Divinity degree with Distinction in Practical Theology. I am an ordained Methodist Minister. I am Moderator for the EIDTS Licentiate of Theology Creation Spirituality Paper. I have been Ecumenical Chaplain at Otago University since 2000. Earlier this year I helped organise Walk for the Planet see http://www.walk4theplanet.org.nz/ (Walk for the Planet was an opportunity for people during Lent to express concern for the well-being of planet Earth, and to share hope for the future.)
Saturday 24 October will be an international day of Global action and awareness-raising in relation to climate change issues. Here in Dunedin, local Churches are being invited to ring our Church bells (if we have them) 350 times on that day to draw attention to the need to reduce the Carbon dioxide concentration in our planet's atmosphere down to a "safe" level of 350 parts per million . (It is currently 389ppm and rising) Please see www.350.org.nz for further information. Bill McKibben, a Christian (Methodist) Sunday School teacher, journalist and writer is one of the initiators of this campaign. The Bell- ringing is Bill McKibben's idea. Church bells will be ringing 350 times all around the planet on 24 October, including the Anglican Cathedral in Christchurch. Even if you do not have Church bells there may well be some other action you can take to raise awareness about the crucial need to care more for God's world, during the lead up to the Copenhagen Conference in December, and on into the future.
We have 4 Dunedin churches confirmed thus far: •Knox Presbyterian •First Presbyterian Church •Mornington Methodist Church •St Paul's Anglican Cathedral Mornington Methodist Church bells will start ringing at 3pm on 24 October. We are arranging a letter box drop (600 or so) around our suburb with an invite to afternoon tea at the Church on that afternoon. We are inviting our community to come and share the bell ringing with our children and young people, and to discuss climate change issues - an opportunity to share our faith in God - the Creator and Sustainer of our planet and universe, and to offer hospitality to our neighbours. We will distribute the invite along with a basic information card on the science undergirding the 350 campaign.
I believe that as Christians we have a responsibility to care more for God's world, and to prevent "de- creation". The gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ leads me to proclaim the need for all people to do what we can to prevent global warming proceeding to a stage where life as we know it will no longer be possible. Unless we act now our grandchildren will inherit a very different, desecrated and considerably more unstable world - if global warming is allowed to proceed unchecked. There are many things we can do together. Ringing our bells 350 time on October 24th is one simple gospel-action which will demonstrate to our communities that Christians care, not only for the salvation of individuals (which is very important) but for the well-being of the whole of God's creation as well.
Obviously the bell- ringing will be pointless unless it leads to action and change. Such action and change in human behaviour is what must follow, locally and internationally. As Christians will we take global warming seriously and change our ways, or take no notice of the warning signs ?
References : HEAT by George Monbiot Penguin Books 2006, 2007 The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, And The Scale Of Creation (2005) by Bill McKibben. Cowley Publications Rev Greg Hughson M.Sc. B.D. Ecumenical Chaplain, Otago University
In The Comforting Whirlwind, Bill McKibben turns to the biblical book of Job to demonstrate our need to embrace a bold new paradigm for living if we hope to reverse the current trend of ecological destruction. Pointing to the now-familiar consequences of our self- centered environmental practices-the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, and deforestation -Bill McKibben's mix of modern science and biblical wisdom forces us to acknowledge that growth and economic progress are not only undesirable but downright deadly. If we continue to press the pace of development, we will very soon complete the 'decreation' of our planet, destroying everything on it, including ourselves.

From Selwyn Yeoman
Tuesday, 13 October
I'm Selwyn Yeoman, for 30 years a minister in the PCANZ, with degrees in Geography and Divinity, a long-standing interest in these issues (since high school Crusaders Camps), a little experience with a Christian conservation organisation on the Tibetan Plateau, and presently doing Doctoral studies on how we understand the commission to exercise 'dominion' in Genesis 1:26.
Recently, a well-known writer on conservation issues said to me he believed that if the churches reconnected with these issues we would reconnect with large numbers of people, and it shouldn't be a problem for us to do that since we believe in Creation. We read Paul's letters, or the Revelation, and see not only human beings but the whole creation saved in the purposes of God. David Watson, quoting Hans Kung, once said, "the Kingdom of God is Creation healed," or see Brian Hathaway "Beyond Renewal," it's a big picture of salvation. Bell ringing, or other Christian environmental action, is a way of bearing witness to this hope.
But my friend is a bit optimistic. There's also a painful repentance involved. Others recognise a problem. We must speak of it as being about how we live before God, in the world for which we've been given responsibility. It actually requires a conversion, a metanoia, a complete change of mind about what's important and how to live. Which I believe is the real reason for resistance on climate change issues. Nowhere is the determination to avoid repentance more clearly seen than in the story that the science is far from settled. The scientific community is overwhelmingly convinced that this is a serious issue. Those who say otherwise are the greenhouse gas producers - in NZ the new style dairy industry, and in N America the oil and coal burning industries. Bell ringing does what it did before sirens, cell phones and radio - it alerts people to a danger they must respond to.
In the end, we have to decide whose science we're going to trust. Why not trust eg. Sir John Houghton, formerly Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Oxford University (1973-1983), Director General of the UK Meteorological Office (1983-1991), Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) Scientific Assessment Working Group (1988-2002) and lead editor of the first three IPPC reports, Fellow of the Royal Society and much more besides, evangelical Christian and frequent writer on these issues as Christian issues. Or, closer to home, Graeme Tate, who's got well-considered material in the recent PCANZ publication "Caring For Creation," or why not Bill McKibben, another believer, originator of the 350 movement, and award-winning writer over many years for National Geographic.
We do have a gospel to proclaim, about the restoration of all things to God through Jesus Christ. I believe that in every time and place the gospel reveals itself as the gospel in relation to some particular issue. If not, if it's not somehow earthed here, it becomes a kind of Gnosticism or Docetism. That was the issue faced in the early church's debates about Creation, and much more recently in South Africa - even quite conservative Christians, eg Michael Cassidy in the evangelistic organization "Africa Enterprise," came to realize they had no gospel if they didn't address the issue of Apartheid. And in our day, the proper care of the Earth is our issue.
Live in hope! The Kingdom of God is Creation healed.

From Ray McKendry:
Tuesday 13 October, 2009
My name is Ray McKendry, I am a parish minister in Dunedin ordained in 1980 and with a university degree in theology. I am also qualified in common sense ways of discernment that seems to be very useful these days. I have been in my present parish position since 2001.
Since Greg has included literature people may want to read may I suggest a book: Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years (Paperback)by Dennis T. Avery (Author) and S. Fred Singer (Author) Supported by in-depth scientific evidence, Singer and Avery present the compelling concept that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle. 'Unstoppable Global Warming' explains why we're warming, why it's not very dangerous, and why we can't stop it anyway.
Scaring little children is the next ploy in the global climate change debate: http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=4173 Amazing what some will get up to eh?
As Greg points out bell ringing (or indeed hand ringing) will do nothing if we do nothing. Since global climate change is not measurably caused by human interaction with the world we live in, I suggest we do nothing. I see now that the BBC, Paul Hudson their climate correspondent, has written: "One thing is for sure. It seems the debate about what is causing global warming is far from over. Indeed some would say it is hotting [sic] up." Let's hope the discussion leads to sane common sense conclusions and we stop the nonsense of taxing people to resolve something we cannot resolve and get on with dealing with the real issues God is calling us to tackle. Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/10/bbc_asks_what_happened_to_glob.html
Thanks, Kind Regards, Ray.

Thursday 22 October, 2009
I am very grateful to the people who take time out of their busy lives making income for NZ in order to discuss, inform and to do something about climate change. Below is a website which is a realistic and well presented view of the issue. It shows the impact on the NZ economy of following an unrealistic view of climate change. http://www.climaterealists.org.nz/node/1 Kind Regards, Ray McKendry

1 Comments

1. Ray McKendry makes this comment

   Thursday 18 February, 2010

   Well it's disappointing to see the climate change debate fail to come to anything substantial. We now know that many of the stated claims were based on little scientifically verified information and indeed a cover-up seems to have been going on. We should put this issue to bed now and get on with doing, Oh I don't know, say: fixing the world economy, caring for the needy etc...