Beauty, colourful... Sad, fearful... Angry, determined 

Dave Gregory is listening to children’s voices of wonder and lament over climate change - and wonders if we are letting their painful words shape both us, and our community's response 

Coningsby. A small town in the flat countryside of southern Lincolnshire. Lying next to an RAF base. Fast fighter jets roaring into the sky through the day, powered by monstrous, fossil fuel devouring engines. No one at the school seemed to notice. I guess that you learn to drown out the noise.

I was visiting the junior school for a science-faith festival led by a team from “God and the Big Bang”.  The ///What3words location of the school entrance is “epic.recently.enlighten”.  Epic. Enlighten. Not bad words for a school, perhaps capturing something of what we hope for these days too. 

I was exploring climate change with children from years 4 and 5. I began with an image that still causes a wow from me after 50 years. Earth Rise taken by the Apollo 8 explorers, the first human beings to travel to the moon.  An image that captures God’s declaration of seeing all that was made was good (Gen 1). Locating our exploring, I asked these 8, 9 and 10 years olds to look at the image and think ///What3Words it brought to their mind. 

Beauty. Colourful. Bright. Vibrant. Full. Life. Glorious. Special. Big. Small. Wonderful. 

Children are naturally attuned to wonder and the questions it raises. Traits that Frank Keil in his recent book Wonder suggests fade away as children progress through the education system. And perhaps churches too? But not on this day. Not these children. Words that were a moment of unrecognised worship, capturing what the writer of Psalm 8 says – “From the mouths of children and babies come songs of praise to you.” 

As the session continues, I explain the science of the wondrous gift of the Green House Effect, which helps sustain life on the Earth, but how its fragile goodness is being broken as we add more Green Houses gases to our air, leading to rapid warming. 

1.1 degrees Centigrade so far. Seemingly not much. But have they noticed? Recently?

Recently – the third of the ///What3Words tagged to the school. A good word to describe people’s experience of climate change in Coningsby. Its impact is not known from stories of far away lands where people’s homes are washed away by epic floods, or where livelihoods die out due to the drying out of the soil, but by changes closer to home. For back in the last week of the previous school year, in the middle of July, Coningsby was the hottest place in the UK, with a new record temperature of 40.3 degree Centigrade. 

There was a poem on the wall.  “One Hot Day in July”.  A day of empty desks as children stayed home. Of wet paper towels around necks and feet in ice trays, trying to keep cool. Of sitting in the shade of trees rather than the usual playground games. For them, climate change had become a lived experience.

Looking to the future, to a world 3 degrees warmer, when such days will not be record breaking any more, I asked ///What3Words described how they felt? 

Worried. Sad. Anxious. Fearful. Scared. Afraid. 

An expression of climate anxiety that further erodes the well-being of young lives. Words of lament replacing earlier ones of praise before the wonder of creation. Less than God’s desire. 

In our churches, do we allow the pain of our children’s voices to be heard? Are we aware of their feelings faced with a present and a future shaped by climate change? Do we let their painful words shape us and our community's response?  For among their lament, there were words of hope.

Angry. Determined.   

Passionate words from young lips that can lead us if we will let them. If we will listen. 

I bring our time together towards an end with my own ///What3Words of lament and hope. 

Alone. Hopeless. Small. 

We are not alone. Sharing our lament with one another can bring new hope. We are not alone for God too laments over his creation that he cares for. We are not hopeless, for each of us can do practical things that can make a difference. And the more of us that do so, the bigger the difference. For small matters. 

I end sharing with them the most important ///What3Words I learnt as a meteorologist. 

Butterfly. Flap. Tornado. 

That the smallness of the flap of a butterfly’s wings may in time produce a powerful tornado. A reminder from creation of how God works in the world and for his kingdom. 

While the small voices of the children in Coningsby are constantly drowned out by the roar of those jet engines, they don’t have to have the final word. And in our churches, with everything that shouts out for our attention, will we hear our children’s words?

Leading us to lament. Releasing words of praise and lives shaped by God’s hope, responding to creation and creator's wonder. Calling us towards a deeper sharing in God’s mission to the whole of creation as generations together. 


Image | Li-An Lim | Unsplash

Dave Gregory is a Baptist Missioner for science and environment. He convenes BUEN – the Baptist Union Environment Network (BUEnvNet@outlook.com)

BUEN shared a series of prayer points ahead of COP27, and has been releasing prayers each day of the gathering on its social media feeds.

The prayer for 16 November, the release day for this piece, was written by Clare Hooper, a Southern Counties Baptist Association regional minister with a particular remit to support churches and pioneers in their mission with children, young people and families (CYF). She serves on the Baptists Together CYF Round Table 

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