Christian Aid: Talking Climate Justice Lent Devotional
Week 1: Repentance
Where have we gone wrong?
Hope and challenge
Almighty God,
what have we done to the world you created?
We lament your damaged creation,
we confess our inaction,
we confess our actions
that have contributed to the destruction of your world.
Forgive us, O God,
instruct us and teach us the way to go.
Amen.
Repentance
The story of our faith is one of redemption, reconciliation and restoration. It is also one of sacrifice
and repentance. All of us at some point have seen where we’ve hurt ourselves, one another and
the world around us.
We can find relief in the act of confession, healing in the forgiveness we are offered through Jesus,
and courage to live differently through the transformative work of the Holy Spirit.
Confession is marked regularly as we practise traditions of our faith from Holy Communion to
moments such as Lent. The Bible shows us many examples of personal and communal repentance
– acknowledgements of the state of the soul and of society. There is lament for what has passed,
and a desire to turn towards a life reflecting God’s Kingdom. Let’s take time to look at the state of
our world, the climate crisis, our part in what is happening and how we can repent.
The world as it is today
The world is heating up. Industrialisation, burning fossil fuels and unsustainable consumption
have dangerously increased the levels of carbon dioxide in the air we breathe. The UK has played
a significant role as the sixth largest historical carbon emitter and the country that kicked off the
mass burning of fossil fuels through the industrial revolution.
Global heating is causing communities to suffer immeasurable loss and damage through ever[1]increasing droughts, storms and floods.
The climate crisis could push 130 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. It is the great
injustice of our time that those least responsible for this crisis are bearing the brunt of its impact.
Agnes Machona
Agnes lives in north-east Zimbabwe, where temperature rises have resulted in unpredictable
rainfall and longer-lasting droughts. Agnes has experienced damage and loss of her crops in
these harsh conditions.
For people living in poverty in Zimbabwe, their ability to grow enough food to eat increasingly
hangs in the balance. Read these Bible passages
Psalm 32
Ephesians 4:21-32
Reflect and talk
1. When it comes to the climate crisis, reflect on where
we have been complicit and what we need to confess.
What do we need to turn away from as individuals,
the church and wider society?
2. Imagine that all the churches in the UK publicly repented
for our nation’s contribution to the climate emergency.
What do you think the impact would be?
3. Ephesians 4 encourages us to ‘put on the new self’.
Think about your church/group specifically.
How can we practically put on the new self and
be people that seek climate justice?
Invite and act
Agree upon one concrete action you will take forward from your conversation.
Think about what is possible not just as individuals, but as a group and as a church.
Closing prayer
God who calls us to repent,
we acknowledge that we have done wrong.
We have neglected one another, we have neglected the earth,
we are sorry and repent for our sins.
Lord have mercy on us.
We know repentance means to turn, to live another, better way,
help us to put on the new self,
instruct us in the way to go,
to live in ways that honour all of creation.
In your unending mercy
heal and transform us.
Amen.
Agnes Machona holding a basket full
of resurrection bush tea during the
harvesting in the mountains.
‘The greatest challenge women face here is hunger.
Children will not be able to go to school because they do
not have food.
‘Livestock would not have water, they need to go a long
distance to get water, and sometimes cannot even get it.
‘But as women we are very much affected because we use
much more water. Thus, we suffer more as women when
there is a drought.