Time to walk the talk: How are we starting to care for creation as a Conference?
This article was originally presented as a talk during the CAC May Day Seminar 2024 organised by the CAC Board of Laity, and has been adapted for this article.
Last year, Creation Care SG conducted a national survey to understand the perspectives of Singaporean Christians on creation care. We asked nearly 500 Christians from 14 denominations about their understanding and attitudes on environmental issues and creation care theology, as well as their openness to the Church taking action on the environmental crisis.
Two insights are immediately relevant to us today in understanding how the church is doing in its care for the world.
The Church has left a vacuum
Firstly, we found that Christians in Singapore are highly concerned about the environmental issues plaguing our world today. Around 40% recognised that there is a significant environmental crisis requiring immediate action, and another 30% were very concerned. This applied across all age bands, defeating typical assumptions that only the young care about creation. In fact, a higher proportion of those aged 65 and up recognised the crisis than those younger!
However, their concern may not be driven by the right reasons.
The top 2 reasons for their concern are:
- The impacts of climate change on future generations; and
- The impact during their lifetime.
Now, a desire to avoid negative outcomes for us and our children and grandchildren is a good thing. But what about motivations that are more informed by our faith?
What about the fact that because “creation care is a Christian responsibility”? Or because “God is concerned about what’s happening to the world today”? These reasons ranked 6th and 8th respectively.
Therefore, we see here that Christians are driven more by fear or self-preservation, rather than faith-driven conviction to care. This is reflected in the issues they are most concerned about as well: rising temperatures, pollution, food and water security, as opposed to animal welfare or human-wildlife conflict that is less human-centric.
Is it surprising when we find that the top answers for where they have heard of environmental issues are all secular sources, namely the government and social media?
What about the Church which ranked 11th?
When faced only with secular narratives emphasising the threat of environmental disaster and images of suffering, by just looking at the headlines, it is no wonder that people are largely driven by fear and self-preservation, rather than love for God and His creation.
There seems to be this glaring gap left by the Church when it comes to having conversations about our response to the environmental crisis. This is possibly the biggest crisis of our time: Do we really want to leave it up to the world to teach us how to respond?
From our survey, 91% of Christians believe that their faith has something to say about the earth. But what does it say? It is time for us to help them find the answersso that they may find alignment between their care for creation and their faith in God (and vice versa).
Our action is lacking and people know it
This gap is not only felt in our teaching but also in our (in)action.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents think that it is important for the Church to act in response to environmental issues and that their response matters to them. Many also want their church leaders – many of us here – to care more about creation care.
Yet, far fewer (11%) think that their church is doing enough for environmental issues.
As Methodists, we understand the importance of actively engaging with and acting upon the social issues of our day. I had a conversation with a pastor who told me that we have so many Methodist schools today because the early Methodists saw that the pressing need of our nation-building years was education, and they dedicated time and resources to building schools to address this need. Fast forward to today, and many of our schools are known for their excellence in developing young minds.
We need to aim to infuse our churches with a culture of creation care so as to align all areas of ministry and mission with godly stewardship.
Today, the need of our nation, and of the world, is to combat the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. The climate crisis is not far away, it is here. When did you last complain about the heat?
2023 was the hottest year. 2024 is set to be worse. Living in a highly urbanised city, we are particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures. As an island nation, rising sea levels are all around us. We say we are the Antioch of Asia, but do we see the people living in our regional mission fields face the deadly dangers of extreme heat and intensifying floods?
Now, I say this not to evoke existential fear which should not be our driving motivation, but to remind the people around us that God has placed us to serve those are in need.
People see that. Our survey also indicates that Christians want their churches to do more to live out God’s heart for creation. They are willing to dedicate time and resources so that we can protect and restore God’s creation.
Are we ready to equip them with the knowledge and resources to do so?
We must be ready to start somewhere. To teach our members a biblical foundation for creation care, to take structural action to steward our God-given resources, and to empower our members with the knowledge and resources to be a faithful steward of creation. This must also go beyond once-off events. We need to aim to infuse our churches with a culture of creation care so as to align all areas of ministry and mission with godly stewardship.
Reflecting on where we have done well and where we have not
Some in the Church have already started this journey to be part of the national movement for sustainable development. The SG Green Plan charts Singapore’s commitments to develop sustainably and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. One of its five pillars, Energy Reset, aims to transition our nation towards a net zero future through renewable energy and greening our buildings. Queenstown Chinese Methodist Church and Faith Methodist finished installing solar panels earlier this year, and I believe other CAC churches are also looking into this.
As the CAC, we have also started on that journey. One of the fundamental steps is to understand where we have started from. By knowing how far we have impacted the world, we can start taking steps to reduce the negatives and enhance the positives.
Last year, our team at Creation Care SG conducted an emissions baseline study to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from 14 CAC churches for Assessment Year 2022 (“AY22”) from which we can compare with that of subsequent years to track our progress.
Let’s start with the big numbers. More than 800 tonnes of CO2 were released from our electricity usage in 2022. To take these emissions out of the air requires us to add 42,000 rain trees.
The highest emissions of any church were 143 tonnes of CO2. This is roughly equivalent to the average annual emissions of 78 four-room HDB households!
We also analysed the emissions intensity, which is the level of CO2 emissions per square metre of the church compound. A high emissions intensity for some churches could point to inefficiencies in energy usage, such as using appliances and lightings that are not energy efficient. Looking at emissions by church membership size also informs us of inefficiencies in church practices concerning energy usage. For instance, maybe members are not using aircon wisely, or rooms fit for the size of meeting. The exact figures and rankings have been shared with churches.
What’s next for us as the CAC?
For AY22, we calculated the emissions from electricity usage only, because it was the quickest to calculate and data was readily available. As we embark on our assessment for AY23, we will include other types of emissions.
Additionally, we have crafted a set of creation care commitments for our churches to undertake in bettering our care for creation. They expand beyond carbon to also look at other areas of resource stewardship, liturgy and worship, biblical education, and the empowerment of members to lead creation care efforts in their ministries.
In developing these commitments, we have abided by three principles:
1. Credible
These commitments must be aligned with Scripture and science. Singapore is also increasingly setting sustainability targets and guidelines for local entities. If we get a headstart, we can help to reduce our future burden as well.
2. Collaborative
We have aimed for these commitments to galvanise a whole-church effort when it comes to their implementation. We don’t want to add undue burden on only the pastors and leaders, but we want everyone to play a part.
3. Consultative
We want every member to own these commitments and contribute in some way. The first draft is intentionally very broad and high-level so that we can hear feedback to grow it in specificity and strength. We want these commitments to be ‘living documents’, growing alongside our creation care journey as a Conference. Our hope is for this to be owned by everyone, and to grow it in strength and ambition as we grow.
Our vision is that we will not just be a pioneering Conference within MCS, but also a pioneering group of churches in Singapore to publicly adopt such guidelines that will inspire others across the region to come on board.
This will take time, but we believe that in a region already increasingly battered by the environmental crisis, our churches must be the ‘light on the hill’ in demonstrating our concern for the welfare of the nation by taking swift action.
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If you would like to invite us to your church to hold consultations on these commitments, or to participate as a pilot church in implementing these commitments, please reach out to the President’s Office or contact us at creationcare.sg@outlook.com.
Dennis Tan
Founding Executive Director at Our Father’s World (prev. Creation Care SG)