Building Back Greener? Read about our conference.
Green Christian’s annual conference Building Back Greener took place on Zoom and in the Quaker Priory Rooms, Birmingham on 7 to 8 October. We explored the need for a new approach to economics.
The Conference encouraged participants to think about the economy of the future, likely developments, and Christian perspectives on these. It offered thought-provoking talks, workshops and discussion on creating a sustainable economy with opportunities for bringing questions and concerns. Speakers surveyed principles for economics and consumption rooted in the Christian tradition, such as sufficiency and justice. These contrasted starkly with the Government’s vision of “growth, growth, growth”,
Talks from our three keynote speakers can be found here.
Writer Paul Kingsnorth, a former deputy editor of The Ecologist, warned of grave societal threats posed by technology.
Christopher Southgate, a theology professor based at Exeter University, gave an Introduction to his view of Green Theology with particular reference to climate change. He said, “Creation speaks in a language we can’t quite hear. Our task is to keep listening to wild nature with all our spirit… make connections with green places.”
Molly Scott-Cato, Professor of Green Economics at Roehampton University and a former Green MEP, spoke about the need for “system change, not climate change”, and for an emphasis on well-being rather than continual and unsustainable economic growth. She said, “Inequality is growing. Who has really benefited in this globalisation constant growth model? The richest.”
In a series of workshops, participants considered Christianity’s historic engagement with economic issues such as tax, debt, inequality, tenants’ rights, consumption and the dignity of labour. The Joy in Enough project team plan to take forward insights on the economy gained at the conference to challenge policy makers and church leaders to promote a new economy based not on ever-increasing consumption but on what Kathryn Tanner has described as God’s “economy of grace”.
A lively final Panel of Cat Jenkins (CATJ), Rosie Venner (ECCR), Prof Tim Cooper and Revd Nick Read responded to questions and challenges from the floor, chaired by Revd Dr John Daniels. Tim Cooper, a trustee of Green Christian and former researcher at the New Economics Foundation, said “an uncritical approach to economic growth does not align well with the teachings of Christ and the New Testament epistles, which warn of materialism and call for an ethic of sufficiency.”
The day ended with a moving liturgy written by Green Christian trustee Revd Andii Bowsher and led by Green Christian’s Chaplain Revd Andrew Norman. The service included the symbolic planting of bulbs into a bowl of soil. An impromptu choir led everyone in the kyrie eleison responses.
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