‘We cannot be ignorant’: Young Salvationists talk caring for creation

Members of the Territorial Justice and Reconciliation Youth Forum explain why the climate crisis is an issue for all Christians.

On Saturday 22 June, The Salvation Army is participating in Creation Cries Out, an ecumenical church service at 11am to pray for and reflect on the climate crisis. The service takes place before the Restore Nature Now march at 12pm, which will see organisations and groups march from Park Lane to Parliament Square to call for all political parties to act on the climate crisis.

Ahead of the prayer service and march, members of the Territorial Justice and Reconciliation Youth Forum reflect on how caring for creation ties in with their faith. 

How do you see caring for creation as part of your faith?

I see caring for creation as an integral part of my faith because, in a time when many people are suffering due to the effects of the climate crisis, we cannot be ignorant to our impact on the world. If we are meant to be an extension of God’s will on Earth, we have a responsibility to look after each other and his creation.

Keeping the planet a safe and happy place to live through climate justice is an important way to try and bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth and display God’s love. If ‘the Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it’ (Psalm 24:1), then I believe we should take care of his creation as it is not ours to destroy. 

We are currently allowing God’s creation to fall into suffering and disrepair because of the actions of humans when God showed love to us by giving us the world to live in, and we cannot continue to neglect it. Reducing our negative impact on the world by fighting against the climate crisis together now is important, because we have done irreversible damage to our planet and the people on it, but many still don’t consider taking care of others and the planet we have been gifted.

How do you see caring for creation as part of your faith? 

I see caring for creation as part of my faith because of what Genesis 2:15 says: ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.’ This shows one of our purposes on Earth is to care for God’s creation. The Earth is not self-sustaining. Caring for and maintaining it is an issue for all Christians.

How do you see caring for creation as a part of your faith? 

Faith and nature are strongly linked by Christian beliefs, such as nature’s importance as God’s creation. My view is that, as Christians, we put our faith and respect in God, so we should respect God’s creation – the world around us. This belief leads me to treat nature well and respect our environment as, like faith, we rely on it to prosper. Caring for creation is a way to express my faith in God and gratitude for how the Lord cares for us.

What do you hope the prayer service and march will achieve? 

I hope that it will achieve a greater awareness for the subject, and that the scale of it will show the people who have power to make real change that this is a serious movement that needs change to match our action. If we don’t start caring for the world now, we could break it to a stage where it’s not fixable, and I hope that this is the message that is put across and taken seriously.