Comment by Harborough churches: We can all do our bit in the fight against climate change

Viewpoint by Rev Stephen Haward, Minister at Market Harborough Congregational Church

There may be over a hundred ways of saying “it’s raining” in British English. Last Sunday morning we could have used them all, as the water came pelting down over Harborough.

Two of our members came to church on foot in the worst of the storm and arrived laughing at their own appearance. They really did look as if they had swum up the River Welland to be with us!

That is what I call dedication, something that is essential if any number of good things are going to happen. Every week people serving in the NHS, for example, work way beyond their contracted hours so that lives may be saved – especially in key frontline services like midwifery because, as we know, babies cannot wait.

And throughout our community there are people providing reliable services for which they never expect to be paid, from counsellors at the Bower House to fund-raisers for Rotary.

Dedication for the benefit of others is really one of the most wonderful things of which we human beings are capable.

All this seems relevant this week as the UN Climate Change Conference gets under way in Glasgow. “Why can’t they just sort it out?” we ask ourselves, as powerful people agree for the 26th time that time has run out for change; while seeing how little change they can get away with compared to other nations.

It takes dedication for rich countries like ours to recognise that the good times are over and real sacrifices need to be made if our beautiful world is to have a tolerable future.

But that is also where we come in. While we all talk a good talk about safeguarding the planet, many of our actions suggest otherwise.

For example, it takes just a little dedication to go to the trouble of planning our meals in advance, when a supermarket is offering to deliver us an “emergency avocado” on demand, at a carbon cost of course. How can we expect world leaders to plan 50 years ahead when we won’t even plan Monday’s tea?

It is easy to become disheartened when we see the gap between what is required and our constant preference for what is convenient. But we are capable of the dedication that our times demand. So here are some words by St Ignatius of Loyola that (unlike the air-freighted avocado) never go out of date:

Teach us, good Lord,

to serve you as you deserve,

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labour and not to ask for any reward,

save that of knowing that we do your will.

Amen.

Rev Stephen Haward is Minister at Market Harborough Congregational Church