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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York

Good morning.

The first letter of Peter tells us to ‘live by the will of God’. And, of course, those words, ‘Thy will be done’, are at the heart of Christian prayer.

When I was Bishop of Chelmsford we had a close partnership with the diocese of Marsabit, in Northern Kenya, a region where Christians and Muslims live alongside each other.

Over the past few years, this region has suffered one drought after another. I saw an elephant tunnelling its trunk into a dried up riverbed in search of water. I saw the decaying corpses of the dead animals that semi nomadic people had had to abandon as they gave up their way of life and settled by the side of the one road that goes through the region, because that was the only way of getting water. Most distressing of all, I saw children begging for water and drinking dirty water from a ditch. If you’re that thirsty you’ll drink whatever’s available.

Climate change, that Kenya had so little part in creating, is real.

But it is God’s will that we care for the earth. And God’s will that we are stewards of creation.

At the Lambeth Conference, a gathering of international Anglican Bishops , much media attention may focus on some of the internal issues that inevitably challenge a worldwide communion, but the most important thing we’ll be discussing is how we inhabit the world sustainably and show the world a different way. Bishops from those places most affected will hold us to his account.

And so we pray -
Creator God, teach us to care for your creation, show us what enough looks like, help us to live lightly on the earth, and save us from ourselves.

Amen.

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