Building faith in the environment: religious groups, like those with MassReleaf Ministry (at right) bring a unique perspective, and a history of hands-on successes, to the movement to care for the Earth.

Across the faith spectrum, religious communities have become a positive force in stewardship of the Earth. It is an understandable fit: "The Bible and ecology both teach humility, modesty, kindness to all beings, a reverence for life, and concern for future generations," Ellen Bernstein writes in her new book, The Splendor of Creation.

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Although the Bible has been teaching these lessons for thousands of years, it has been only relatively recently that religious communities have added their voice to the environmental movement. That momentum has been building since 1990, when 34 eminent scientists--including the late astronomer Carl Sagan--issued an "Open Letter to, the Religious Community" at a conference in Moscow. It decried the state of the global ecosystem, urging that "problems of such magnitude and solutions demanding so broad a perspective must be recognized from the outset as having a religious as well as a scientific dimension."

It's a good bet that religious communities will take their place among the strategic and targeted interventions hoped for by the recently released Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a document drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over a period of four years. The Millennium Assessment reports that humans have changed most ecosystems beyond recognition over the past 50 years, an unsustainable rush for natural resources driven by a burgeoning world population after WWII. The result has been habitat and climate change, invasive species, exploitation of resources, and pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus.

Religious communities are moving to the forefront of those actively seeking to improve our footprint on the Earth. Some practice inclusion, getting inner-city, underserved minorities involved through their churches; others preach a moral responsibility to care for God's Earth; still others reflect on energy and land use on their own property.

These are all efforts by those of faith, regardless of their religion, to care for something--the Earth--that they consider sacred. Bernstein believes we need to "fix" mainstream society's attitude toward nature, to help people see it not as a resource to be manipulated but more as those who consider themselves spiritual do. "In the end," she writes in The Splendor of Creation, "the earth will become whole as we become whole, when we see nature as integral to our identities and stewardship as an extension of our everyday lives."

"Churches are now more aware that human health is fully dependent upon healthy ecosystems," says Mike Schut, development director/program co-director of the Seattle-based Earth Ministry organization. Founded in 1992 as a Christian, ecumenical, environmental nonprofit, its three main tenets are practicing simplified living, environmental stewardship, and seeking justice for all God's creation.

"Some groups like ours have been working to connect faith with care and justice for Earth for over a decade," he adds. "Some of the groundwork has been laid, so that congregations are not as likely to be skeptical when approached with the idea that care for all God's creation is integral to our call as people of faith."

FAITH AND JUSTICE

For many congregations, there is a sad correlation between caring for the downtrodden and caring for a damaged earth. That's because environmental degradation most deeply affects the poor, with toxic waste incinerators and dumps situated where low-income African American, Latino, and indigenous peoples live in inner-city and rural areas.

In South Central Los Angeles, for example, a study by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches organization (LAM) revealed 132 toxic waste sites--three of them Superfund sites--within walking distance of schools. In fact, South Central has more "brownfield" sites than anywhere in the country.

LAM's ambitious agenda includes uniting African American and Latino congregations in the effort to train clergy and others to become advocates while using churches as a base from which to engage in effective community organizing.

Twenty years ago, when faced with a hefty bill to repair its lawn-sprinkling system, the congregation of Seattle's Georgetown Gospel Chapel instead turned the church property into a large "free for the taking" garden that could nourish the broader community.

The church, in the heart of Seattle's most industrial area, sits in the middle of one of the city's most economically challenged neighborhoods. The garden's bounty now helps supplement the diets of neighbors who often must decide between paying for rent, utilities, or food.

Chapel members work with Pastor Leroy Hedman, a certified master gardener/composter, to help build gardens for neighbors, providing them with seeds and gardening/composting training. Young people are introduced to basic Earth-care principles and activities through a recreation/tutoring/mentoring program. And the church hands out hundreds of tree seedlings to residents--trees that will enhance beauty, air quality, and habitat.

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The Chapel's rainwater reclamation system, which helps provide water for the gardens, saves money on utility bills while also preventing stormwater--with its chemicals from neighboring lawns and industries and leaked oil from cars--from running directly into the adjacent, salmon-bearing Duwamish River. The river, sacred to the Native American Duwamish people, is already a Superfund site.

On the other side of the country in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, Reconstructionist Congregation Adat Shalom and its rabbi, Fred Scherlinder Dobb, have been "walking lightly on the earth" since 1997.

During construction of a new synagogue, designed by Schwartz and Peoples Architects, recycled materials were used for some of the composite flooring, carpet, drywall and steel studs. Low-impact cork flooring was used in some areas, exterior shingles came from tree stumps of past harvests, and the shelving and counter-tops from particleboard. Columns that support the entryway were designed to be second-use logs, cut more than a century ago.

Energy conservation was addressed by dividing the building into six zones, limiting the need for fossil fuel-based heating and cooling, along with passive solar siting and design, and a photovoltaic eternal light. Nearly all lighting uses efficient fluorescent bulbs, and walls are insulated and windows double-glazed.

Outside, on its four-plus acres, many mature trees were saved through careful planning. Once implemented, the landscape master plan will do double duty, serving functional and religious program needs but also incorporating stormwater drainage into a "dry creek" bed, creating a teaching or mishnah (commentary on the Torah) garden; surfacing the parking lot with a soil-cement mix that uses organic materials to create a walkable surface; and using native plants, drip irrigation, and low maintenance landscaping.

Says the dynamic Rabbi Dobb, "protecting creation should be at the heart of every religious message. I'm proud our community chose to build in a way that minimized environmental impact. Our 470 households--about 800 adults and 400-500 children--are equally proud they agreed early on that sustainability was a crucial value in our construction process, and regularly point to the environmental innovations."

SPIRITUALITY AND ENERGY

The connection between spirituality and environmentalism was not lost on the Environmental Protection Agency, which made Georgetown Gospel Chapel the first congregation and Adat Shalom the second synagogue in the U.S. to receive its Energy Star award.

"We consciously began addressing congregations/houses of worship as a unique type of facility as opposed to other small commercial buildings," says Jerry Lawson, national manager of the Energy Star Small Business and Congregations Network.

"With the faith community, stewardship of financial resources (utility bills) is important because the savings can go into their other priorities and basic mission." Lawson adds. "However, stewardship of creation, or creation care, is often considered equally or more important, so is often more of a driving force than saving money."

In fact, many congregations around the country are addressing energy conservation. In 1997 the Reverend Sally Bingham of San Francisco's Episcopal Grace Cathedral launched the Interfaith Power and Light Movement to educate the members of her church about energy efficiency, green power, and deregulated energy.

The movement has since spread to 15 states--from Maine to Georgia--and in November 2004 to the greater Washington, DC, metro region.

"We are sponsored by the Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy and co-sponsored by The Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington," says Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light coordinator.

"Our agenda in part encompasses helping congregations and other religious institutions save energy and money through conservation practices, including bulk purchases of energy-saving devices; helping them buy clean, renewable energy from sources like wind and landfill gas; and helping integrate concerns about energy use and climate change into worship."

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GLOBAL WARMING

Blending science and religion, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment is alerting thousands of congregations to the fact that global climate change presents an unprecedented threat to the integrity of life on Earth. Among its many accomplishments are nonpartisan local and national public policy initiatives to help guide action for the common good.

The Partnership was founded in 1993 by the U.S. Catholic Conference, The National Council of Churches of Christ, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network.

It "seeks to weave care for God's creation throughout religious life in such a way as to provide inspiration, moral vision, and commitment to justice for all efforts to protect habitat and human well-being within it."

Evangelical leaders, too, are swinging their influence behind the effort to combat global warming. With a few exceptions, they had been silent on the issue, but in October 2004, according to a New York Times article, the National Association of Evangelicals "paved the way for broad-based advocacy on the environment when it adopted 'For the Health of the Nation; an Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility'--a platform that included a plank on 'creation care' that many evangelical leaders say was unprecedented."

The Evangelical Environmental Network's executive director, the Rev. Jim Ball, who began the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign in 2002, says "seeds planted over the years are at the budding stage but not yet in full flower."

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A CALL TO ACTION

"If you consider the fact that the Bible is still the most widely read book in the world .... it becomes clear that religious institutions could take a powerful leadership role in environmental repair," author Bernstein, who also founded the first Jewish environmental group, Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, writes in The Splendor of Creation. "If churches and synagogues could teach people to read the Bible with ecological eyes and see spirituality in ecological terms, then we'd have a built-in infrastructure for expanding environmental awareness and practice."

That type of expansion is taking place in Massachusetts, where a partnership plants trees to help minister to the physical and mental health, emotional stability, and community spirit of people living in deforested urban and blighted areas across the state. Called MassReLeaf Ministry, the partnership consists of the Evangelism, Mission, and Justice resource of the United Church of Christ and Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Their pilot project was held in June 2003 in Somerville, a city selected because it is one of the state's most densely populated, with a population that speaks more than 50 languages, embracing more than 15 different religions. Fifteen 240-pound trees were planted along a heavily traveled street by volunteers from the First Congregational Church of Somerville, the Wellesley Congregational Church, Tufts University, and the city of Somerville's government.

According to Neal Seaborn, the enthusiastic MassReLeaf Ministry director, "that first project was so successful, we obtained funding for future projects from the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC and the U.S. Forest Service--with the stipulation these funds can only be spent for projects through churches. Two major projects followed in other cities in 2004, and major tree plantings are underway this year in still others."

In Washington, DC, the Religious Partnership for the Anacostia is trying to build an appreciation for Earth as something to be revered with its efforts to clean up the Anacostia River. A pristine waterway when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson chose the present site of the District of Columbia in 1791, it's now one of the most polluted rivers in the country, and passes through the city's poorest neighborhoods.

The partnership is aided by groups like Earth Conservation Corps, whose president/CEO Glen O'Gilvie explains how Corps members not only work on the river's restoration themselves but engage hundreds of volunteers from religious congregations.

Many Corps youth, born "without a chance" into threatening violence and turmoil east of the river, have found salvation and a way out through the Corps. In 2004 alone, members planted 2,000 trees, 30 hedges, and 1,200 annuals and wild grasses along the Anacostia's banks.

Elsewhere in Washington, St. Mark's (Episcopal) Church in southeast Washington has an active committee that sponsors events around environmental stewardship with a particular focus on the plight of the Anacostia.

For Earth Day, 23 parishioners ages 5 to 73 donned waders and rubber gloves and despite rain and wind planted flats of emergent plants on some Anacostia mudflats at low tide. Earlier in the month, the church had joined in a tree planting sponsored by Casey Trees at Fort Stanton Park in Washington.

As discussion of sustaining Earth and its natural resources becomes more prominent, look to faith communities to play a visible role, alone and in partnership with others. As Gary Gardner of the Worldwatch Institute wrote in 2003, "Worldwide, the major faiths are issuing declarations, advocating new national policies, and designing educational activities in support of a sustainable world--sometimes in partnership with the secular environmental community."

So the world turns--and with it our wildlife, rivers, trees, and lands. The question now is, will we finally leave them as Shakespeare said, "bare, ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang?" or with a triumphant, ringing "Hallelujah!"

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and
listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they
speak with the voice of God.--George Washington Carver

"TREES ARE THE EARTH'S ENDLESS EFFORT TO SPEAK TO THE LISTENING
HEAVEN."--RABINDRANATH TAGORE

"IN THE WOODS WE RETURN TO REASON AND FAITH."--RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Nancy Anne Dawe writes from her home on Seabrook Island, South Carolina.