Bishop John – We are stewards of creation

Tuesday 26th September 2017

Last night at a busy Manchester Cathedral, Bishop John spoke about the “connectedness” of Pope Francis’ ministry. How nothing can be seen in isolation. All of us are included in care for our common home, because we are all missionary disciples.

Our Faith, Our Planet, Our Community at Manchester Cathedral was a multi-faith, multi-agency, event to bring people together from different communities in Greater Manchester, to learn about climate change and promote shared values.

Bishop John’s message last night highlighted the “connectedness” of Pope Francis’ papacy. He said:

“If I was to use one word to summarise the ministry of Pope Francis, I think I would chose the word – connectedness.

Connectedness-  that he never ever seems to see anything in isolation. He doesn’t deal with one problem. He doesn’t say ‘ we will look at this now’. He is always connecting it up in every way and he has done it in just about everything he has written. When he wrote he is first encyclical, his letter to all members of the Church, Evangelii Gaudium, it was to remind us as members of the Church that we don’t live in isolation, things aren’t just governed by the Pope and the bishops. That we each and everyone of us have our own role in the Church, an active role…..he used a rather wonderful phrase of just two words. He called us all ‘Missionary Disciples’.

Turning to the environmental crisis facing our planet, Bishop John continued:

“We are all part of one rich tapestry and we are responsible for it. We are stewards of God’s gift to us, our planet Earth and everything that belongs to that planet.”

Finally Bishop John asked the gathered audience to consider the impact we could all have locally:

“We are facing a world problem but world solutions are made up of the tiny actions, the apparently insignificant actions of millions of people. We can make that difference.

We can turn things around. We are stewards of creation.

This isn’t a problem that just simply faces us, we have got to be aware of future generations too. What are we handing on? Are we just giving an enormous problem to the next generation or are we prepared to say, no, I can play my part locally. This is where we need to take action and be seen to be taking action.”

“Each one of us can be Missionary Disciples, whether we are Christians or members of any of the world’s religions. We show the goodness of our faith by our actions. We are going out to make our world a better place caring for our common home.”

You can listen to Bishop John’s full talk here