Pilgrim's Progress column with Malcolm Chamberlain: A hot summer
“How was your summer?” “Hot!”
I wonder how many of us have had conversations along those lines over the past few weeks! You may, like me, have spent the August Bank Holiday weekend navigating rain (and mud – I was at a festival!) but, even with the cooler and wetter end to August, the Met Office have declared summer 2026 to be the UK’s hottest on record. And August was the world’s joint hottest month on record; the other being July 2023.
The science is conclusive that our world is heating up and that carbon emissions generated by human activity are the greatest contributing factor to this. While several nations have been dealing with severe climate consequences for many years, the wildfires that consumed homes in the West Midlands this summer brought the destructive effects of climate change much closer to home.
Most people will agree that the planet we call home is astonishingly beautiful. I had the privilege this summer of visiting northern Tanzania where churches and schools across our region have strong links. From the Rift Valley to Lake Victoria to the Serengeti, we took in numerous breathtakingly stunning scenes. We also saw some of the urgent and necessary work being undertaken to adapt to extreme weather events.
This month, Christians across the world are marking the Season of Creation, an annual month of prayer, worship and action to celebrate the gift of creation and commit to care for it. This year, ‘Creation in Christ’ was also celebrated on September 6 as a new annual festival in the Church’s year.
But creation care is not only for followers of Jesus. Whether belonging to a faith community or having no specific faith commitment, we all share a common humanity and a common home, and all share in caring for this world and for one another. Actively seeking to reduce our carbon emissions – globally, nationally, locally and personally – will have a significant impact for good.
Malcolm Chamberlain, Bishop of Wakefield