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Science is a gift, says Bishop Poggo

02 August 2024

Lambeth Call on Science and Faith commits Church to working collaboratively, he says

THE Lambeth Call on Science and Faith committed the Church to working collaboratively with science, the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt Revd Anthony Poggo, has said. It could offer the wisdom of faith to the disciplines of science and ethics, and this was one of the most important calls to discuss as a faith community.

Facilitated by the Primate of Central America, the Most Revd Julio Murray, and the Bishop for Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Communion, Dr Jo Bailey Wells, panellists were speaking to a global audience in the latest webinar to further the work of the Lambeth Conference in 2022. “Science is a gift,” Bishop Poggo said. “It’s important we are not left behind.”

‘Have you tried turning it off and on again?’

The Revd Professor Kwamena Sagoe, head of Virology at the University of Ghana, co-chair of the Science Commission, and an Anglican priest, reflected: “God gave us responsibility to take care of what he has created. Advances in health care, technologies, and climate issues such as global warming should be of interest to Christians.

“Scientists will always approach issues with an open mind, and use evidence-based decision-making. We should be able to adapt to new discoveries, especially in our changing context. We also should value facts and experience, and learn the art of articulating these as clearly as possible.

“For understanding science is understanding the nature of God. We should encourage open conversation between faith and belief and science, and explore complementary approaches in order to address the complex issues we face. Seek the common ground: compassion, justice, stewardship.”

Professor Andrew Briggs, Emeritus Professor of Nanomaterials at Oxford, suggested: “It’s a two-way process. Science can be a God-given resource to look at nature with.” Science could also contribute to practical aspects of the work of the Church: “The networks of the Anglican Communion can be used as catalysts to bring people together to help relate to a world increasingly [dominated by] technology.”

The Assistant Bishop of Bondo, in western Kenya, Dr Emily Awino Onyango, spoke of the way in which the Anglican Church of Kenya was drawing on science to address the dire consequences of extreme weather: displacement, loss of livelihood, and food insecurity. “Some Christians had said that was an act of God, God punishing us,” she said. “We are using science to explain that greenhouse emissions have led to a global crisis mainly caused by human actions such as cutting down forests.” Use of renewables was being encouraged, and the Green Anglican Movement was focused on planting trees.

“Science can explain why we need to. The Church focuses on it to explain the ethics of climate change,” she said. “The youth in Kenya are really into this. They’re fighting for climate-change justice, through the African Faith Network.” Women were also being brought on board: “It’s now not just an academic issue. That gives me a lot of hope.”

The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, who co-chairs the Anglican Communion Science Commission and speaks on AI in the House of Lords, was encouraged by the recent G7 meeting in Italy, at which Pope Francis had spoken to the leaders of the world on a scientific subject. “AI is a tool that can do both good and harm, and affect our humanity,” Dr Croft said.

He found hope, too, in the Rome Call on the ethical use of AI, signed by both the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. “We’ve seen the Church making a contribution at the highest level,” he said. “Faith brings a deep understanding of humanity to shape the debate. As Christians who believe the maker of the earth became a human in Jesus Christ, we have a huge amount to contribute to the debate. Many of the scientists working on these technologies want to draw other voices in.”

Dr Heather Payne, a paediatrician and senior medical officer for the Welsh Government, spoke of health care and Christian faith having the same aim: to help people achieve their full potential and wholeness.

She emphasised the importance and better understanding of mental health, and made particular reference to the worldwide inequity of deaths in childbirth. Organisations such as the Mothers’ Union were providing local support.

“Half a million under-fives die from malaria. We know faith communities can help communities to trust,” she said, noting that the big challenges now were the non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Jesus had dealt with people with compassion, which underpinned good care, she said. And science offered “the important gift of asking questions”, as Jesus and Nicodemus had done.

The half-hour Q&A session gave insights into the most pressing questions. The first, from Guatemala, asked how fundamentalism could be combated. “Remember that our Anglican tradition rests on the authority of scripture, but also places a very high premium on reason and the use of our mind and intelligence,” Dr Croft said.

“The doctrines of creation and the incarnation also teach us to do that; so we have the resources in our tradition to reflect very deeply on the sciences. . . It’s deeply challenging to do that, and it’s hard work, and we need our universities in support, but we also need that vital dialogue between scientists and Christians in order to provide us with the resources. That’s part of what the Science Commission aims to be.”

How did the theories of evolution and creation sit together, someone in South Africa asked, when there had seemed to be a conspiracy by science to nullify creation by God? Professor Sagoe reflected: “Creation by God and evolution theories are all out of knowledge, and I think for me it’s a dialogue. . . So we explain the creation story when we do the Bible studies — I don’t think there’s any contradiction between the two.”

A question directed to Professor Briggs came from an Anglican priest and quantum physicist in Canada, interested to hear comment on the experience of awe and wonder common both to scientific discovery and worship.

“I love that question,” Professor Briggs said. “I really do find that the more I learn about the way that God makes the world work, the more it inspires me to awe and wonder. One of the things that I’ve learned in quantum science is that we’ve got a number of questions that are absolutely fundamental to what we do, where there’s no consensus about the answer. . .

“But quantum is too important and too robust to abandon. And there are some questions in faith — like what happens when we pray — to which there’s no consensus or agreed answer. We all love to probe deeper and learn more about it if we can.”

One question came from Burundi, on how faith and science could coexist “without crashing into each other”; another was whether African indigenous scientists had a part to play in the faith and science dialogues. A question from the West Indies, currently experiencing the full force of Hurricane Beryl, asked how the the work of the Commission could assist in addressing “this existential reality for our people”.

Dr Croft answered: “It shows the immense importance of the work that we’re engaged in, that we are able, as a Church and as the Anglican Communion, to take a global perspective on these questions, and to connect together the urgency of the situation as you’re experiencing it and as many other parts of the world are experiencing it,” Dr Croft said.

“There is still complacency in some parts of the world about this threat to our common humanity and to justice, and so it’s really vital that this is engaged with.

“It’s vital that we bring the insights and wisdom and passion for justice and human flourishing that is in our faith, together with the best science that we can, and to respond urgently and thoughtfully and meaningfully to the crisis that we face.”

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