This is a sensible move: the church I attended before the diocese bulldozed it was becoming increasingly green, mainly because there was mold growing in the carpet. The epithet “Climate Justice” is sufficiently stern to discourage unwanted verdant foliage in the dampest of church carpets.

As the document below tells us, sin and separation from God are not the most important issues facing us today, climate change is. The good news is that the mere renaming of “Greening Niagara” to “Climate Justice Niagara” is going to change all that. In fact, as I type this, I feel the cool winds of Justice blowing from the diocesan cathedral in Hamilton. Or maybe winter is coming.

I admit, I did learn one useful thing from the article below: God, on the advice of the Anglican Church of Canada, has abandoned transcendence, left heaven, and now lives on earth with us – “Sadly and tragically our common home with God is in poor health and in steep decline”. A bit like Laben’s household gods Rachel stole and hid in  her camel’s saddle.

From here:

Our common home is also God’s own house, permeated by the Spirit of God from the dawn of creation, where the Son of God pitched his tent in the supreme event of the incarnation. (Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam)

Introducing Climate Justice Niagara (CJN), formerly known as Greening Niagara, with a new and broader focus and mandate about the most important issue facing us  today — climate change! Sadly and tragically our common home with God is in poor health and in steep decline. But God made us stewards and protectors of the earth. The Gospel calls us to challenge and change the unjust structures in society that oppress and marginalize people, including the injustices that contribute to the climate crisis. In that call we find a building block of Niagara’s Mission Action Plan: “Prioritize social justice action with an emphasis on environmental justice.”