|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
Caring for Creation
By Lily Auliff Across the nation, religious organizations are getting greener. The National Council of Churches leads an interfaith campaign to educate people about global climate change. In northern California, the “Redwood Rabbis” work to save old-growth trees from logging. The United States Catholic Conference’s Environmental Justice Program encourages parishes to confront environmental problems that affect the poor. The Evangelical Environmental Network’s quarterly publication is devoted to helping its readers “care for creation in a way that is faithful to Jesus Christ, biblical revelation, and scientific analysis.” Central Presbyterian Church in Houston is on top of this trend. That church designated Caring for Creation as the congregational focus for the year 2000. The philosophy is simple: God created the world, and it is humankind’s job to protect it.
The so-called environmental theology movement is also grounded in social justice. The nation’s poor are overburdened with environmental problems, and religious organizations are continuing their tradition of protecting the less fortunate. The Caring for Creation theme sparked various eco-activities at Central Presbyterian. The church partnered with Urban Harvest and the Christian Community Service Center (CCSC) to start a community garden. The produce grown feeds the hungry at CCSC. The garden in itself is unique. Instead of planting directly in the ground, volunteers built raised beds using cement blocks on asphalt. “This has not been done before, and there have been a share of skeptics,” says Leo. But the project has been successful and even produced vegetables during the hottest summer months. “We feel we are really pioneering a way of gardening that others who live in asphalt and cement could adopt,” she adds. The Worship and Music Committee at the church sponsored a hymn-writing contest that garnered thirty-five entries with ecological themes. The congregation has sung many of the songs during worship services. Central Presbyterian’s pastors also addressed environmental topics in their sermons, and church leaders prepared special materials for the Sunday school classes. During one moving session, the church showed “Affluenza,” a one-hour PBS “The sad part of this is that the church - probably like most of the rest of the world - was pushed on this because of the crisis that we see in ecology. It took something like that to get our attention,” explains Leo. “We had not honored what we had from God. We as Presbyterians realized that we could no longer stand by and say nothing. We needed to become active.” As environmental theology spreads throughout churches in the region and nationwide, environmental organizations will find an expanded choir to which they can preach. For more information on the environmental theology movement, visit the Web of Creation at www.webofcreation.org, the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology at www.nacce.org/homepage.html, or the National Religious Partnership for the Environment at www.nrpe.org. |
|
In 1990, the national Presbyterian Church adopted a Call to Restore the Creation, and Central Presbyterian based its efforts on this document. “It is theologically important for us to connect into who we are in the creation, and not just with a human-centric understanding,” explains Debbie Leo, associate pastor. “We have some writing by Christians through the ages who were honoring all created ones, not just humans. But most tended to go toward the human centric. And the church is saying no, that’s no longer a possibility.”
television special that explores the high social and environmental costs of materialism and overconsumption. “The consciousness raising was profound. What started simply as a video and a class made us realize how much we all have and how little we truly need,” observes Leo. “It was painful for many of us to recognize that.”