Source: BBC Radio Lincolnshire
URL: N/A
Date: 17/07/2016
Event: Bishop of Lincoln travels to Fiji, to "reflect on climate change"
Credit: BBC Radio Lincolnshire
People:
Rod Whiting: Let's move on now, because the Bishop of Lincoln has just returned from a trip to Fiji. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? But it wasn't a holiday - the Right Reverend Christopher Lowson was there to talk about the issue of climate change. And I asked him how the trip came about.
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Christopher Lowson: Well, it wasn't an excuse for a glamorous holiday, it was a gathering of 40 bishops and archbishops from three quarters of the Anglican world, to come together to reflect on climate change. And we did so in Fiji because Fiji is extraordinarily vulnerable to rising sea levels. They were delighted that this group of significant religious leaders had come to see them, and come to discuss something which, if it's not addressed, will mean the end of their islands by the end of this century.
Rod Whiting: What sort of things did you discuss?
Christopher Lowson: We discussed the theology of climate and an understanding of a profound relationship between God, humankind and nature. And seeing the world as something that we dominate, as human beings, but actually the connection, at a very kind of profound level, between those ancient parts of our lives. In that exploration, I found lots of common ground with Lincolnshire - there's a sense of openness to climate and geography, and it's shared with our brothers and sisters in Fiji.
Rod Whiting: And another strong Lincolnshire connection, as well...
Christopher Lowson: Yes, a Christian minister, John Hunt, a Methodist layperson, was called, in the 1830s - he'd been born and bred in Hykeham, his father was the bailiff at Hykeham Manor - to go out and preach the Gospel in Fiji and some of the other islands. And he went to one of the islands and he did a clever thing of converting the Chief, and then the rest happened. But they're very grateful to have received the Gospel, from Lincolnshire.
Rod Whiting: You will have come back and noticed that quite a lot's gone on, in the time you were in Fiji.
Christopher Lowson: Yes, and I think that when I left it was one set of governments [sic], and I came back and everything has changed. But we seem now to be a bit more on track. It takes a vicar's daughter to grip [?] these things, and I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister seems to be addressing issues.
Rod Whiting: Well, one of the things, of course, that she's done is scrap the old Department of Climate Change - Energy and Climate Change - and that has now been absorbed into something else, of course very pertinent to what you've just been attending.
Christopher Lowson: Well, it may be - well we don't quite know what lies behind that - is it just a name, or is it - or is there more to that? I hope it's not, kind of, marginalising the importance of climate change. In May there was a big conference in Paris, and the United Nations and the European Community agreed to set a limit of 1.5 per cent [sic] Centigrade in global warming over the next century. And that would actually help save bits of Lincolnshire from flooding and bits of islands in Fiji. So it may be that what the Prime Minister is doing is putting this work, not in some special unit with a handful of experts, but actually integrating it into the mainstream of business and energy - I hope that's the explanation for that. It would be an unwise thing, I think, if it was about marginalising this important work, because it has an impact for many communities but not least for our communities in Lincolnshire.
Rod Whiting: And have you brought anything back from Fiji, apart from a very colourful shirt?
Christopher Lowson: I've brought a very colourful shirt, but I've been hugely impressed by the hospitality - I mean, hospitality is a big thing for them. And, you know, "Welcome to our home, this is now your home". So I thought there is a lot we could learn from that. But I brought back a desire to work with the Archbishop of Polynesia on having a twinning relationship between the Diocese of Lincoln and the Diocese of Polynesia, and maybe see if we could have our own climate change conference in Lincolnshire, which we could sit down, explore with landowners and others ways of addressing issues at local level, learning from what they've done in Fiji, where it's an immediate issue, without the resources that we might have, for flood defences and so forth.
And one of the extra bonuses was that I had to fly via Sydney, where my son and daughter-in-law now live, and I was able to see my first grandchild, who was seven days old and very small, and celebrate with them for a day or two, on my way home. So it was a very creative experience altogether, with new life in Sydney but also hospitality and very good things in Fiji.
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Rod Whiting: The Bishop of Lincoln, the Right Reverend Christopher Lowson, talking about his trip to Fiji to discuss climate change. And it is a mighty shirt, I can tell you that he was wearing at the time - you can see that on our Facebook page. Actually I tried to out-shirt him but lost hands down. Check it out.