Dr Di Rayson reflects on November bushfires for upcoming publication

So begins Dr Di Rayson's contribution to the book, Words for a Dying World: Stories of Grief and Courage from the Global Church, which is being edited by Hannah Malcolm in the UK and is expected to be published in coming weeks.

From Wherrol Flat, Di has written from her experience and perspective of the devastating November 2019 Rumba Dump bushfire that burned near her home, as well as the connection events such as bushfires have with climate change and Christianity.

"There are international contributors expressing their own experiences of climate change and some of the emotional and spiritual implications it is having for people," Di said.

"I wrote about the November bushfires and I also give some theological input for how we might better understand the human responsibility in the crisis.

"Different places have different symptoms of climate change. Ours was bushfire but other people are talking about sea levels rising and islands being submerged, others on the biodiversity loss and it being a symptom of the planetary crisis we're in."

Di teaches ecotheology at the United Theological College, North Parramatta which is part of Charles Sturt University.

She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow of the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre of CSU and lectures at the University of Newcastle.

"Ecotheology is the study of the entire world: the plants, animals, landscapes and humans from a theological, and in this case, Christian, perspective. I take a 'deep ecology' perspective which sees humans as simply part of the whole ecology, but with particular responsibilities," said Di.

"This type of thinking has roots in all of the ancient religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism etc. It meshes well with scientific understandings of the interrelated nature of the ecology."

No stranger to writing academic material, Di said the opportunity to take a more creative approach to her writing for this publication, where the audience is a layreader and not an academic, was enjoyable.

"It meant I could be a lot more open to my own experience and our emotional response," she said.

"My contribution is partly about the bushfire but also more generally about the theological response.

"It didn't have to be weighed and considered. It's more free, without being limited to referencing and balancing the argument. It was lovely."

Di said she wrote the piece immediately after the bushfire and the free flowing style of the narrative helped her as she tried to process the experience.

The book title, Words for a Dying World, suggests somewhat gloomy content, but Di said it is also full of hope.

"As an ecotheologian I'm thinking about the condition of the world every day when I go to work. It is distressing."

She highlights the mass extinction of animals, which rose to acute levels in Australia as a result of the bushfires.

"The estimate was one billion but it's closer to three billion that were impacted after the fires.

"It's not just the fires themselves, but the resulting starvation, loss of habitat and injured animals."

She said when considering the world dying she looks at the perspective of not only what is happened to the creatures, but also humans dying, not only with the COVID-19 pandemic but through things like droughts and loss of food security.

"And the Earth herself is dying... due to emissions. There are different layers of death."

But, she said, the book's writers are also looking for hope in the scenario.

"How do we live this experience of climate change and live in a way where we support each other and find some sort of hope and community?" Di said.

"It can be really difficult to find the starting point and what I've found is as a community we have to respond.

"We saw in the bushfire that we can respond. It was an urgent thing, we pulled together, supported each other, helped in a crisis and helped rebuild.

"When we go through something like that we find hope in community.

"In my work I try to find community not just in people but with the creatures we share our habitat with.

"How do we become good custodians for the creatures of the Earth and not just for each other?"

Di said how we respond to the climate crisis is an aspect of Christianity.

"The church exists for the sake of the entire world... and doing justice in the world is a core business for the church.

"It's not only prayer and worship. Public conversation, climate change and racial injustice are much more at the forefront of the work of the church."

"Historically the church developed public education, universities and hospitals. In this era, the focus has had to shift," she said.

"Representatives of the church and regular parishioners now attend climate protests, and are also very much engaged in helping climate refugees relocate, secure food chains when crops are gone or disaster recovery after hurricanes and typhoons.

"The church is increasingly active and engaged helping people recover from disasters and also being engaged in public discourse around the root problem of climate change.

"You see ministers at Lock the Gate protests and at sit ins at parliament house.

"They are standing up not only for Christians but for all. It is a demonstration of the church partnering with other community groups and NGOs (non-government organisations) to work together for community outcomes."

She said it comes down to ethics of responsibility and people being engaged in the world and being responsible for their actions.

"This is about being fully engaged in the world in a responsible way and engaging politicians to help them think through options and change as a nation.

"We need to look after workers whose industry is being phased out and find other industries and funding different options than 20^th and 19^th century industries.

"We should be demanding this of our leaders."

A second book recently published that Di has written for is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, and Political Resistance edited by Lori Brandt Hale and W. David Hall.

Her own book will be published by the end of the year, titled Bonhoeffer and Climate Change: Theology and Ethics.

Di is part of the Anglican Church and preaches occasionally at St Matthew's in Wingham and elsewhere.

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