Christian Ecology Link is, as regular readers of this blog may have spotted, a cause close to my heart. I was in at its inception, as the Christian Ecology Group. It happened during a conference of the Ecology Party in the Winter Gardens at Malvern: a handful of us met up for prayer, sharing the feeling that Christians needed to be involved in politics, but equally that charity was at times lacking during the conference proceedings. We sought accordingly to bring Christian insights into our party membership, and - upon returning home - Ecology Party insights into our church membership. And so it has gone on for thirty something years.
But what's this? The Tablet today reports a name change to "Green Christian" (ugh!) and that "we felt that the name Christian Ecology Link was a little bit too 1980s for communications purposes."
"Green Christian"? What's that, another denomination? It certainly doesn't encapsulate so well the important "linkage" between Christianity and the Creation, still neglected by many within their church communities, still a matter of raised eyebrows on the part of secularists in the environmental movement.
No, this seems to me change for change's sake, a distraction and an expense. I fear the above "we" does not include "I".
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2 comments:
I am also sorry you don't like the name Green Christian, but why 'ugh'?
Isn't it what the organisation is all about? I find it so much easier to think and say 'Green Christian' than 'Christian Ecology Link', to me that's too much of a mouthful now, although when I first heard about it it did have the same ring about it as you appear to have found.
As some things have moved on, and some are 'status quo', the name should move on.
Hopefully you'll get used to and like it as time goes by.
All the best,
Stephanie and Jim Lodge
Thanks Stephanie. Sorry you didn't like "ugh", but it's just that "Green Christian" elicits that response in me. There is something about the noun "Ecology" that conveys more than the adjective "Green". I want Creation (and all that flows from an appreciation of it) to be seen as the mainspring of their faith by every Christian, not just by self-styled Green Christians. And the "link" implies something enduringly useful. I do feel strongly about losing the name Christian Ecology Link - and indeed I will try to keep it for the local group I convene here. Having said that, I realise a decision has been taken, and that it will not now be reversed.
Martin
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