The Lord’s Prayer is written from a perspective where God is all powerful and we are, it seems, like very small children wholly dependent on his benevolence for our wellbeing. This seems in complete contrast with the warnings about global warming; despite the vast size of the earth, we have collectively brought about a dangerous situation and it is up to us to sort it out. I for one have never thought to pray, ‘Dear Lord please keep the atmosphere from heating up by more than two degrees Celsius by 2050.’ 

Somehow, we need to bridge these two contrasting views of the human situation. The Lord’s Prayer rightly reminds us that God is the source of our being, all we have is a gift from God, and all we have achieved is done through the skills and resources God has given us. The Prayer also reminds us that God is the epitome of all goodness, and it is to him that we look to discern what our course of action should be if we are to make a ‘success’ of the life we have been granted. Somehow in our current situation we need to keep these two things firmly fixed in our mind as we roll up our sleeves, and get on with fixing our problems.