David Coleman reports from Glasgow Cathedral

Ecumenical occasions often work a bit too hard to please everyone. Or maybe they work too hard not to offend anyone.

There was no shortage of hard work, by a bewildering number of people, getting the Nations’ Climate Sunday Service at Glasgow Cathedral to happen, and ensuring it honoured more than just their own perspectives. The service, on 5 September, was like one of those lovingly crafted matchstick models of a cathedral, except it was woven of thousands of emails, Zooms, and even phone calls. Woven in the quiet building of community. It was a labour of love, relying on grace.

No one seemed in a position to completely control proceedings. That’s fine practice for the road ahead. We have to rely on each other. Churches, aid agencies, civic society and earthself.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, but something nourishing and encouraging was served up. A fine starter for a purposeful ecumenism in our lifetime of spiralling climate crisis.

If we’ve been too comfortable until now to heed Jesus’ call to ‘be one’, then freak weather and stories from global partners of drought and floods demand a hearing. The churches who were represented here are taking it seriously…

David Coleman is Chaplain of Eco-Congregation Scotland

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This is an extract from an article published in the October 2021 edition of Reform

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