Dear Brothers and Sisters,

From the Blessed Isles
I write this Bishop’s Bulletin from Honiara in the Solomon Islands, where I am attending the installation of the new Archbishop. The Most Reverend Leonard Dawea is a good friend over many years: indeed twelve years ago I officiated at his marriage to Dorah and they now have a fine young family. These visits to my former home always bring back memories. The installation was at St Barnabas Cathedral in Honiara, the same place where I was ordained deacon whilst still a member of the peace-keeping force after the ethnic tension. In this very Christian nation it was a delight to see my friend installed in front of a congregation of over four thousand people.

When I return to the Solomon Islands I return to a culture and place with very different priorities and understandings. When I try to explain the main preoccupations of the Australian Church I usually get bafflement. Same-sex marriage is not part of Melanesian culture and unlikely to be, but my Solomon Islander friends generally see it as a cultural matter of limited importance and do not understand why it is so important in the West. Problem blong yufala! They also do not understand why we Australians are so keen on euthanasia which they rightly see as obscene. Death in Melanesia is almost always dignified by the involvement of the whole community in a person’s dying process: to intentionally kill a dying person or to leave them lonely while they are dying is simply shameful.

The moral problems they are deeply worried about and where they seek the help of the rest of the Church are environmental. The effect of climate change is readily apparent throughout the South Pacific. The sea waters rise, shifting or destroying the fresh water lens upon which islanders rely for drinkable water and crops. Islands are washed away or submerged, especially the outlying low level coral atolls which are largely peopled by the descendants of Polynesian travelers. The artificial islands in the lagoons fringing the island of Malaita are also being quickly eroded. Weather patterns are noticeably different. It should also be said the deforestation due to Asian loggers aided by corrupt local officials are also a significant concern. Not every environmental catastrophe is due to climate change – but enough are. And they are the environmental disasters that Solomon Islanders cannot control or influence.

Two of my former theological students come from Polynesian outliers: Fr Nigel Kelaepa is from the atolls of Ontong Java in the north of the country, and Fr Robert Santa is from Tikopia in the south east. The distance between the two islands is about 1500 kilometres – this is not a local phenomenon but it widespread across the South Pacific. Both islands have been settled sustainably for over one thousand years: with about 5000 people on Ontong Java and 1150 people on Tikopia. But now they are having to move. Ontong Java is only two metres above sea level and the fresh water lens is now contaminated and the verdant gardens are being destroyed by salt water. Patterns of rainfall are now far more erratic than previously. Villages which used to be well away from water are now gone, with the foundation stones of the buildings and their graveyards now in the sea. So the people have to start leaving. But to where?

They will have to settle on the larger islands: but land is always an issue in the Solomon Islands. The civil war from 1998 to 2003 – known as the Ethnic Tension – was largely fought over land ownership.

So as more than 25,000 people (in a country of only 550,000) leave their low lying homes in the next few years to go to the main islands, there will be strife and destabilisation. But Fr Nigel and Fr Robert worry about other things: how do they maintain their unique and rich cultures when their homes are no longer there and they are climate change refugees? Unlike the Jews in exile there is no Jerusalem to eventually go back to. They worry about the cultural death of their people: the word cultural genocide is a term not to be used lightly but one that here is apt.

So our brothers and sisters in the South Pacific look at us in our wealth and ask us: what are we doing to help? What are we doing to combat climate change? The islanders are our poorer and smaller neighbours in distress – where is the Good Samaritan? What claims can they justly make on us?

We need to think about the challenge given to us by those in the South Pacific. As I write this Bulletin I am reminded of the day of climate action being scheduled worldwide for 20th September 2019. The fifth mark of mission of the Anglican Communion is to strive the safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth. Our Diocese at its last Synod agreed to promote the activities of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) and the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC). Their links are on the Diocesan Home Page. So my reflection here is on our theology of the environment.

The Bible and the Environment
There are over twenty references in the Bible to the environment. Clearly there is an overall theme of Creation. God created the world and the universe – and saw that it was good (Genesis 1.31). In spite of our fall God’s creation remains good and is entrusted to us (Genesis 1.26). At the end of time this creation is not to be destroyed but rather is to be saved (Romans 8.19-23) and the earth itself renewed (Revelation 21.1).

Now some argue that we are given not just stewardship but dominion and ownership and that therefore we can do as we like. This I think is seriously in error. We are clearly given dominion (Genesis 1.26-29) but this is not the same as ownership. But even if we think of it as ownership, clearly the prior ownership and title belongs to God. It is not his purpose to destroy his creation but to redeem it (Romans 8.21-22). Furthermore, consider the analogy of a parent (God) giving a gift (the natural world) to his children (us). If a child destroys or damages a gift, do we expect the parent to shrug their shoulders or do we expect them to discipline the child? Even more so if the gift still belongs to the parent and is only entrusted to the child for good purposes. The matter is clear: we are entrusted with the earth but we are not given it to destroy or damage. Furthermore, assume one child takes the best parts of the gift and then denies them to the other children. Is this not unfair and unjust? Likewise this applies to us: for wealthier nations to base their wealth on activities which deprive others of their homes and livelihoods is unjust. And the Bible is very clear on the judgement that awaits wealthy people who destroy the livelihood of others (2 Samuel 11 & 12; 1 Kings 21).

The Bible is also very clear in a positive way about the need to look out for the environment. It is one of the themes of the Torah that the land must be given its rest (Leviticus 25.4). It is also clear that the land is not truly ours but belongs to a wider inheritance (for example, Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21). Finally, one of the reasons for the exile – one of the sins of Israel – was the failure to look after its land (2 Chronicles 36.21). So a Christian ethic of environmentalism is well founded on the Bible and the use of God’s creation in a damaging or unjust way is also condemned in scripture.

Climate Change and Christian Morality
The evidence that climate change is occurring is overwhelming, as is the scientific consensus that our current climate change is caused by human activity. Indeed this is not a new thing: George W. Bush was warning of climate change as early as 1988 and in 2007 the Anglican Diocese of Sydney recognised the impact of climate change and the Christian duty to act upon this threat:

https://www.sds.asn.au/sites/default/files/synod/Synod2008/ClimateChange.Rep08.pdf?doc_id=NDc4OQ==

We are clearly obliged to act for two sound scriptural reasons: first out of respect for the creation that God has entrusted to our care, and second out of justice and love. It is the wealthier nations that have most contributed to climate change and it is our poorer brothers and sisters who are suffering most from its effects.

The people in the Solomon Islands and PNG and the Torres Strait can see daily the impact of climate change. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have an immediate claim on our charity (Matthew 25.31-46): those who lose their homes and livelihoods and lands are among the poor, the homeless and the hungry that we are commanded to feed, clothe and take in. Even if we totally deny that we ourselves are causing climate change, nevertheless we are clearly commanded to care for our neighbours. In this Diocese of North Queensland the Torres Strait Islands are not just neighbours but they are us: and PNG and the Solomon Islands are our immediate neighbours just over the horizon.

But even more so there are the demands of justice. If we benefit from climate change – and clearly the wealth of this nation is based more than most on fossil fuels – then we clearly have a responsibility to those who suffer from climate change. We also have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren. What parent destroys the inheritance of their children? And yet this is being done.

Now some will object that action on climate change destroys jobs: in the choice between environment and economy we should choose the economy. But this is a false dichotomy. Without a healthy environment there is ultimately no economy; and the jobs to be found in tourism, renewable energy and agriculture are just as important as the jobs to be found in mining. The world will still continue to need mining and will still need some coal: but we also need a healthy environment in which to live and Australia needs even more the jobs created by agriculture, tourism and renewable energy. What we need is a just economy and a healthy environment: these are the demands that our God places upon us and are also the demands of common decency and common sense.

The Church has a positive contribution to make in this area. I commend climate change action to all in our Diocese, both to minimise the direct impact we make as individuals and as church and to enable a strong voice proclaiming God’s sovereignty and justice. The LORD “does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34.7 NIV). We ought to be rightly fearful; for it is our children and grandchildren who will bear our sins in failing to act on climate change. This is the great moral issue of our day and one where God speaks through scripture to us at length and with power. We ignore the testimony of God and the evidence of science and our own eyes to our peril. May our Lord forgive us our sins and give us the grace to act in love and justice to secure a better world for our children.

The Right Reverend Dr Keith Joseph
Bishop of North Queensland

Sexual Abuse contact line: 1800 242 544 or 07 3835 2216