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Good Morning. Climate change is dominating the news and will continue to do so in the next few weeks. Ahead of COP 26, we will hear competing stories of hope and stories of doom, appeals for immediate radical change and appeals for reasoned, gradual change. There are many stories of what governments are doing to make our economies more sustainable. Yet against those, the UN highlighted yesterday that plans by governments to extract fossil fuels up to 2030 are incompatible with keeping global temperatures to safe levels. Our vision for today is in direct competition with our vision for tomorrow. This kind of contradiction is obvious when we read together optimistic reports of advances and pessimistic reports of lack of progress. The problem with optimism and pessimism is that they require little of us. They’re a reaction to what we see, often shaped by mood and personality. They may motivate us to act, they may not. The Christian tradition does not talk of optimism. Instead, it talks about hope. Hope, in Christianity, is considered a virtue. It does not just happen, it is something we are called to, and something we work on. It’s active. Christian hope is associated with faith and love. It has a shape and isn’t left down to individuals. It is the hope of a community, in relation to a God who has given a vision of a better future. This vision reshapes how Christians are called to live as individuals and in community. Hoping for a different future without working towards it is rather futile. Hope is demanding. What we hope for – a greener, fairer, sustainable future for the earth and its inhabitants – dictates how we should live today. I think that the UN report on fossil fuels highlights that hoping for a better future without changing our energy consumption habits today is not really hope, it is merely optimism, or, possibly, denial. Hope as a virtue requires us to examine our life, and shape different habits. Hope both shapes and sustains the habits when the going gets tough. We keep in mind what we are working for, knowing that our efforts contribute to that picture, even though there is no certainty about the outcome. COP 26 holds many hopes; its success will depend on whether we can transform hopes and fears into concrete changes that every person can own for themselves; only then will it be hope, rather than wishful thinking.