Love One Another: The Self In Relationship With the Other

An essay on the ecological self and the implications for our discipleship. And your Friday Nudge offers two resources in this time of climate chaos

Friday Nudge: Two Resources in the Climate Chaos

Hello friends. I’ve noticed that, among those in the community of faith and climate action, there are at least two kinds of people. One type is like me: one who gravitates toward the fire, not away, wanting the hard details so as to be awake and aware. It can be hard for us to stop and slow down!

The other type is more contemplative. Approaching the climate crisis by sidling up to it; definitely paying attention, and seeking to respond, but doing so less as one rushing into the fire, and more as one waiting with the water and blankets for those emerging from the flames.

We need both types, and often we can be both the one who gravitates toward the crisis and the contemplative, depending upon the day, the time, and the need.

Whether you tend to gravitate or sidle, to be the agitator or the contemplative, here are two important resources in our time of climate chaos.

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Moving Toward the Fire: Radically Local by Margi Prideaux

After losing her farm and everything she had been working for in the Black Summer of 2020, Australian author and environmentalist Margi Prideaux was transformed. In her words:

I spent more than 30 years deep in the environment movement—part scholar, part professional activist and negotiator. Always a writer. I moved between conferences, forests, and frontlines. I fought for wildlife, for wild places, and for the communities who live shoulder to shoulder with both. …

For decades, climate change was there—just out of frame, creeping in. But, it was still words and predictions.

Then came Black Summer (2020). Not theory. Not forecast. Just fire. It tore through our home, our tiny farm, the sanctuary we’d built for wildlife. Gone, for us, overnight. Across Australia, 24 million hectares (92,644 square miles) and more than 3 billion wild animals—gone in one catastrophic season. And in that smoke-choked silence, something cracked open. I saw what was coming—and knew we were not ready.

She now focuses on growing food for community, building resilience and waiting for the next fire to blow through and destroy everything again. She also writes the newsletter Radically Local here on Substack, which I find deeply hopeful in its insistence on facing the climate crisis head-on. Please subscribe. If you can, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

Climate Contemplative: Tim Hewes Finding Beauty Behind Bars

This book has just come out, and I was very excited when it arrived this week from the UK. The Reverend Tim Hewes, climate activist and retired Anglican priest in the UK, shares his experiences of being imprisoned on remand for six weeks for charges stemming from his direct nonviolent climate action. This book is a delight and a surprise; while I was expecting essays reflecting upon faith, justice and the climate crisis, it is more a volume of prayer and contemplation of the priest while in jail, and is illustrated by his wife, who used art as her way to cope with her husband being in jail and the uncertainty that went with it. This is a quiet book that I sit with when I need the quiet that comes with climate contemplation. It’s a needed counterpart in the long work of faith-based climate action. Order yourself a copy.

Here is an interview with Rev. Hewes:

Do you tend to be a gravitator or a contemplative? Why?

Here’s another section of the chapter I’m writing on discipleship and how it is manifested in climate action.

Love One Another: The Self In Relationship With the Other

Discipleship is about how the human person lives out their faith in the world. If we are to properly understand what discipleship is, then we need to understand who we are, as individual selves whose beliefs are shown in their actions. In turn, what do we learn about who we are in our relationship with others?

Need to find encouragement and hope in this time of climate and ecological crisis? Want to support this eco-ministry that is international and ecumenical and have access to the full breadth of my work? With a paid subscription, you’ll get more of the encouragement you need, find hope in this difficult time, and make this ministry possible.