The world is currently facing an unprecedented climate crisis and as Christians, we must respond. After summarising the overwhelming scale of the existential threat we face, this thesis turns to a specific problem: there is little direction in my church and many others on how to respond to the climate crisis in a meaningful way. At St. Mary’s, a small Green Team was founded two years ago, and while its members were highly concerned about addressing the climate crisis, no concrete sustainable steps or eco-actions have yet been adopted. This thesis examines why little has happened, and what some of the barriers are that may have inhibited the Green Team and the wider St. Mary’s congregation from taking action. It then investigates what new insights can be gained from behavioral psychology, the Celtic Christian tradition, and eco-theology that could engender a shift in attitude and action.
In this paper, I propose an alternative narrative to the content of existing educational programs. This new approach forms the basis for the design of an innovative program, Hope4Creation (H4C). The program aims to give my congregation a unique opportunity to begin a transformational journey of engagement and to enable them to respond in a practical and relevant way to the climate crisis by moving from theoretical to practical application. H4C is arranged to have a tangible impact enabling the Green Team and the St. Mary’s congregation to become a beacon of light for other churches in the diocese, so that they too adopt sustainable living and incorporate eco-actions into their Christian life, witness, and identity. / 2024-05-13T00:00:00Z
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/44425 |
| Date | 13 May 2022 |
| Creators | Bannister-Parker, Charlotte |
| Contributors | Stone, Bryan P. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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