Billy Kennedy: Irish Presbyterian Church launches climate change survey

Understanding the ongoing challenge of being "good stewards of God’s creation ever-present", the church hierarchy wants to hear the views of as many of its members as possible on the issue of global climate change, through a dedicated online survey that has been set up at Assembly buildings in Belfast.The purpose of the survey, which can be taken at www.presbyterianireland.org, is to hear the views from a range of people within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland – children, young people and adults – to provide a baseline understanding of thinking, perceptions and positions currently within the denomination.The Rev Dr Allen Sleith, convener of the church's stewardship of creation task group, said the survey was an important exercise. “The survey, along with other data, is just one part of the jigsaw, as we will also use the results from different focus groups to produce a report for our church's 2024 General Assembly.

"This will help shape how Irish Presbyterianism can best engage with the issue of climate change and creation care. I would encourage our members to take time to look at the survey and take part in this important initiative.”Dr Sleith, minister of Hillsborough Presbyterian church, added: “While the conflicts raging in Ukraine and the Middle East dominate our current headlines, another crisis continues to loom large. This is the threat to our planet's well-being, particularly due to climate change, caused largely by human practices since the 19th century industrial revolution.

"The effects of this are increasingly evident here at home, but in other parts of the world the impact is truly devastating, not least for our global partner churches and the communities they serve.”The survey, which closes on October 31, looks at each respondent’s perception of, and attitude to climate change across a range of 21 multiple choice questions. There are also opportunities for further comment. It asks, for instance; "How concerned are you’ and ‘what concerns you most’ about climate change'?"With nearly 800 responses so far, from about a third of Presbyterian congregations, the survey also asks if respondents have made changes in relation to their personal lives when it comes to climate change, buying locally sourced produce, for example, or made changes to the way they travel or consume energy, and what would hold them back in making changes to their lifestyle. It also asks what their congregation is doing.The survey follows a number of important recent initiatives that the Presbyterian Church has taken in relation to being encouraged and challenged to look at ways it can better look after the environment.In 2018, the church's general assembly passed a resolution commending its council for global mission’s stewardship of creation report on climate change.

Dr Sleith said: “I would encourage our members to complete the survey as a means of helping our denomination to care appropriately for the world that Christ came to redeem and transform.”