Opinion
Norwich church globe points to God's fragile gift
Bringing a gigantic globe into St Peter Mancroft church in Norwich has opened conversations and invited others to reflect on the beauty and fragility of God’s gift of the earth and to address the damage caused by human sin and greed, writes church vicar Rev Canon Edward Carter.
The decision to bring Gaia by Luke Jerram to St Peter Mancroft was one rooted in prayer and not undertaken lightly.
As Christians, our reading of the Bible leads us to believe that God cares deeply for the world God has fashioned and sustains, and that this care extends to every aspect of creation. In the extended speech of God recorded in Job, reminiscent of the portrayal of creation in Genesis 1, God catalogues the earth and its inhabitants revealing an intimate knowledge of non-human life. Humans are not mentioned by God but are present as part of creation, addressed by God with questions concerning the rest of the created order.
The God who speaks in Job is the God who was in relationship with creatures before humans existed, blessing the inhabitants of the waters and the birds of the air, and telling them to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:21,22).
In Job, God delights in the animals named, hunting with the lion and raven, watching as the goat and deer give birth, soaring with the hawk and eagle. These are creatures that exemplify divine wisdom and challenge the ideological distortions of the place of humanity within the cosmos. When Mark 1:13 speaks of Jesus in the wilderness, and ‘he was with the wild beasts,’ perhaps it is this passage from Job that should inform our understanding.
This concern of God for all creatures is expressed in the Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:1-17). God addresses Noah and his sons but extends the covenant to ‘every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you.’ So important is the commitment to creaturely life in all its diversity, the phrase, ‘every living creature’ is repeated four times. This Noahic covenant, whose fulfilment is dependent only upon God, offers a starting point for a theology of salvation that includes the whole of creation, an idea taken up by Hosea in a future covenant that will eliminate all violence between humans and other creatures.
In an echo of the Noahic covenant, Revelation 5:13 depicts living creatures gathered around the throne of God, singing praise to the Lamb, ‘I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!’
This connection between Christ’s life, death and resurrection and the created order is found in a range of New Testament texts which speak of the reconciliation of ‘all things’ in Christ, texts like Romans 8:18-25, Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:9-10 and Hebrews 1:2-3.
In bringing Gaia to Mancroft we were moved by the words of Jesus from John, God so loved the world, the cosmos in the original Greek. Bringing a representation of the world, a globe made with detailed NASA space imagery, we highlight the love and care that God has for this lovely, fragile home, gifted to us and entrusted into our care. We also acknowledge that we have failed in our God given responsibilities to this earth, and in raising awareness of the climate emergency we are raising awareness of the outworking of human sin and greed on the lives of the most vulnerable communities on our planet, on the delicate ecosystems that support all life, and on the species driven to extinction by human action. The created order is not merely the backdrop for humanity, it has intrinsic value to God.
Luke Jerram was inspired in making Gaia by accounts of the overview effect, the experience of reverence and awe felt by many astronauts on seeing the earth from space for the first time. For some it was a religious experience that led to ministry, including James Irwin and Charles Duke.
The name Gaia was not a driver of the art. The only reference to the origins of the name in the information available inside Mancroft was, ‘In Greek Mythology Gaia is the personification of the Earth.’ This was supplied by Luke Jerram. This straightforward explanatory sentence is being made to do a great deal of work in the criticism of Mancroft.
Like Paul at the Areopagus beginning with the statue of the unknown god, bringing Gaia into Mancroft has been a way of opening a conversation and inviting others to reflect on the beauty and fragility of God’s gift of the earth and to address the damage caused by human sin and greed.
The month has provided a significant opportunity to have conversations about the Christian faith with the many thousands of visitors who have come. We have shared God’s love and generosity with those we have encountered. We have placed the Christian faith at the heart of the current debates and discussions around the climate emergency and in doing so we honour our calling to be wise and good stewards of all that God has entrusted to us.
Click here to read a previous opinion article on this topic: "Is climate emergency defining issue of our time?".
Image courtesy of St Peter Mancroft Church.
Rev Canon Edward Carter is Vicar of St Peter Mancroft.
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