A Greener Annual Council

The Diocese of Nebraska’s Annual Council was held last Thursday through Saturday in North Platte. Thanks to Nancy Striebel and her team from our host parish, Church of Our Savior, we were able to recycle plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and paper at Annual Council. I heard several positive comments about the recycling; many of us are used to recycling at home and at work, and were very pleased to have the opportunity to do so during this meeting.

Two of the resolutions that were passed at Annual Council have to do with the environment. The 76th General Convention this summer endorsed the Earth Charter. One of our resolutions was a Response to the Earth Charter; it encourages each congregation in the Diocese to “perform an audit of their use of paper, plastic, water, furnishings, etc., and take action to reduce, reuse, recycle, and reclaim resources.” Another resolution that is a local response to an action of General Convention is the affirmation and adoption of the Five Marks of Mission articulated by the Anglican Consultative Council. One of those five marks is this: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. Both of these resolutions call us to be more intentional in our stewardship of God’s creation.

A growing awareness of environmental concerns was evident in several reports and in conversations with people. There was a presentation from the EGG (Episcopalians Going Green) team from St. Matthew’s in Lincoln; some of the Sowers Fund projects also featured activities such as reusing, recycling, and gardening. People stopping by the Green Sprouts display shared efforts their parishes were making to be greener, while others shared their intention to lead their parish in that direction.

The Green Sprouts presentation talked about connecting with nature as a necessity for our spiritual nurture and health; about our activities during 2009; and issued an invitation to have The Conversation, to talk about environmental climate change in a political climate where a recent Pew poll found fewer Americans believing that global warming exists or is a serious problem even as the scientific evidence has become very strong. Where is the Church called? How do we keep the conversation open?

For parishes wanting to be more intentional about environmental stewardship but not knowing where to begin, the following information was available at the Green Sprouts display:

Ideas to begin greening a parish…

Turn off lights that aren’t needed.

Change from conventional lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

Reduce the use of paper. Use both sides of the paper when making multipage copies. Use e-mail in place of paper mail for parishioners who are online.

Unplug computers and other office equipment at night.

Fix dripping faucets.

Turn down the thermostat in the winter; turn it up in the summer.

Recycle paper, plastic, metal – whatever you can.

Use mugs instead of Styrofoam or paper cups at coffee hour. Use the dishes in the kitchen cupboards for parish dinners, or have people bring their own place settings to potlucks.

Consider purchasing Eco-Palms for Palm Sunday.

Have a Green Fair around the Rogation Days or St. Francis Day. Plan activities that highlight environmental stewardship. Plant a tree; worship outdoors; have a contest to see who can find the most creative ways to reuse existing items.

Organize carpools for the parish. Where possible, encourage parishioners to walk or bike to church.

Reduce or eliminate the use of lawn chemicals; landscape with plants that won’t require much water. Create landscaping with stewardship in mind: “A wild area in a churchyard does not show that no one cares about the place. In fact, it shows just the opposite.”**

Talk about environmental issues. How do they connect with our baptismal covenant? How does the Millennium Development Goal of environmental sustainability connect with the other MDG’s?

Involve the Sunday school and youth groups, and let them teach the adults some things about caring for creation.

____

**From How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take To Change A
Christian?

O Ye Ice and Snow

“A grand cosmic vision” is the way Robert Alter describes Psalm 148 in a footnote to his translation of the psalm. (The Book of Psalms, trans. Robert Alter) This psalm of praise, one of the Evening Psalms for the Daily Office yesterday on All Saints Day, begins with the heavens and the heavenly beings, the angels, and then moves on to the Earth and the creatures of the Earth, including human beings.

I thought of the middle part of this psalm – “Praise God from the earth, you sea-monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and fog, tempestuous wind, doing God’s will” – when I happened across three different news stories about ice and snow today. Psalm 148 in turn reminded me of Canticle 1, The Song of Creation, in The Book of Common Prayer. This canticle is familiar to those of us who grew up with Morning Prayer as the principal service most Sundays: “O ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord; praise him and magnify him forever."

The three news stories were similar in talking about places where ice and snow are melting at extraordinarily rapid rates. They are about three different locations: Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Arctic region, including the North Pole. A story from the Associated Press tells about plans for the Nepali cabinet to meet on Mount Everest as a way to increase awareness of the threat from global warming, which is causing glaciers to melt in the Himalayas. The melting ice is forming lakes whose walls could burst and flood villages below. The second story, from CNN, tells about how the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro are melting at an increasing rate. The ice cap at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro could be gone within two decades at the current rate of melting. The third report, from Reuters via MSNBC, is about the ice covering the Arctic Ocean. David Barber from the University of Manitoba spoke to the Canadian Parliament last week and told them about the disappearance of “old ice”, ice that has formed over a number of years, in the Arctic. The ice that is left is thinner new ice, ice that is easily broken. The multiyear ice reached thicknesses of 260 feet; the new ice is 20 inches thick. This story reports that “An increasing number of experts feel the North Pole will be ice free in summer by 2030 at the latest, for the first time in a million years.”

This means that by 2030 there may be no ice at the North Pole in the summer and no ice cap on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The same year has often been mentioned as the limit for glaciers in Glacier National Park in the United States, though some scientists now believe 2020 is a more accurate prediction for the disappearance of those glaciers.

The loss of ice in these places and many other spots around the world have effects on entire ecological systems, including economic effects on the people who live near these places. Concern for people is enough of a reason for us to care more about the accelerated melting of glaciers and ice packs.

But I suspect part of the sadness I experience when I read about and reflect on what is happening is grief at the loss of a piece of that cosmic vision, the great expanses of ice and snow that, along with all of creation, are bidden to praise God. Somehow the diminishment of glaciers -- and the loss of many species of plants and animals, the acidification and pollution of the oceans, and all the damage done to creation, some of it soon to be beyond the point of restoration -- diminishes the fullness of the praises we offer to God. However, this is not surprising when we think about the disconnect between praising God with our voices while ignoring and even contributing to the destruction of God’s creation. Our spiritual health as well as our physical well-being depends on our acknowledging the harm we have done to the Earth, and repenting and changing. For the glaciers at least, the time left to do this is short.

Truly Alive

The Gospel lesson for All Saints Day this year is the end of the story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11: 32-44). After Jesus calls to Lazarus, who comes out of the tomb still bound with burial cloths, the story ends with Jesus saying “Unbind him, and let him go.”

I’ve been thinking about what binds us as individuals, parishes, dioceses, and a society. What are the norms and expectations that keep us from flourishing, truly living, as we might? In particular, what binds us and makes it so difficult to accept and begin to make the changes needed to deal with pollution and climate change?

Chuck Morello of the Episcopal Ecological Network (EpEN) sent out a message this week that originated with Skip Vilas of the Diocese of Newark, a founder of EpEN and member of the EpEN leadership team. (Click on Episcopal Ecological Network above or under Good Green Resources in the right hand column of this blog to see more about the network and to sign up for e-mail updates from EpEN.) The message was about an article entitled “Dr. Rowan Williams says climate crisis a chance to become human again” that appeared in The Guardian on October 13.

In this article, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggests an answer to the question of what binds us. In an address at Southwark Cathedral, the Archbishop said that we have allowed ourselves to become “addicted to fantasies about prosperity and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost”.

When our primary focus shifts from Christian discipleship to quick and easy ways to build or hold onto wealth, we bind ourselves with self-centeredness, love of money, and conformity to the marketplace. These things are binding or restricting because they keep us from doing what our deeper, better selves long to do: following Christ and living in a way that is fitting for people whose primary identity is Christian discipleship.

Changing the way we live so that life as we know it on this planet can continue for future generations does more than benefit the environment and, in turn, the people who stand to suffer if environmental deterioration goes unchecked. It also helps us to create better lives for ourselves, lives centered on values that nourish our souls. Rowan Williams says: "If I ask what's the point of my undertaking a modest amount of recycling my rubbish or scaling down my air travel, the answer is not that this will unquestionably save the world within six months, but in the first place it's a step towards liberation from a cycle of behaviour that is keeping me, indeed most of us, in a dangerous state — dangerous, that is, to our human dignity and self-respect."

Our lessons for All Saints Day also include Psalm 24. Remembering the first verse of this psalm, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein”, can help free us to be good stewards of our planet. We are free to follow Christ and live fully into our humanity when we remember that God created us and the world in which we live, and that the fullness and flourishing of our lives depends on staying in a whole and healthy relationship with God and with God’s creation.

In the end, making the changes we know we need to make is a good thing not only – and possibly not even principally – because it is good for “the Earth” in the abstract or even for our fellow creatures, human and nonhuman, who stand to suffer the most from environmental deterioration, but because it is necessary for the health and vitality of our own souls.

350 Prayers for the Earth Update

The International Day of Climate Action, October 24, will begin in Nebraska in 27 hours. Since yesterday's post about our planned action to offer collectively 350 prayers for the Earth, there has been a very good and encouraging response by e-mail and through our Facebook event site. Twenty people have responded; eight of them have promised to offer a total of 168 prayers, and the others will be praying for the Earth but haven't attached a number to those prayers. In all, the people who have responded plan to offer at least 180 prayers for the Earth on Saturday.

Three participants are planning to offer a prayer each waking hour during the day; another will pray at each meal. Someone who prays with Anglican prayer beads is planning to pray an entire prayer bead cycle -- 100 prayers! Fr. Peek reports that each person at the youth confirmation retreat at our parish, St. Stephen's, will offer a prayer, for a total of fifteen.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote a column in USA Today in strong support of 350.org and Climate Action Day. He compares this unified global effort to address the issue of climate change to the unified struggle that finally brought an end to apartheid in South Africa.

Photos wanted
As of 9:00 this evening, 350.org reports that 4,548 actions are being planned in a total of 174 countries around the world. As these actions take place, photos will be posted on the 350 website and in other media outlets. If you are praying with other people and can have a photo taken of the group, or if you have another photo to share that somehow illustrates the act of praying for the Earth, please send it along to me to include in the report of our action. All the photos should include the number 350; some possibilities are a poster in the background that says '350', the three numerals taped onto people or objects in the photos, or created with votive candles on a table.


Power of prayer
Jesus said that when two or three are gathered together, he is there among us. Even though our Saturday prayer group will be scattered geographically, we will be together in spirt, and there is power in several people praying with the same intention. The task of addressing global climate change is huge and urgent, and can be daunting. It is essential that people of faith continue to pray for our Earth and for those who can lead us through a solution. If you haven't signed up to participate in 350 Prayers for the Earth and would like to join us, read yesterday's post in this blog or send a message to deaconbetsy@windstream.net.

350 Prayers for the Earth

International Day of Climate Action

This Saturday, October 24, is the International Day of Climate Action organized by 350.org . As of today, over 4,000 events are planned in 170 countries around the world. The idea is to increase awareness. The upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for life as we have known it to continue on the Earth is 350 parts per million (ppm). Right now we have about 387 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. To care for humankind and our planet, we need to change the way we live so that we can decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.



Events for the Day of Climate Action are planned in Omaha and Lincoln, and more events are being added daily. You can search for an event near you at 350.org .

If we had an event for the entire Diocese of Nebraska that brought us together in one physical location, we would have people driving great distances and sending more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, it’s important for people of faith to add our voices to this call to right action on the part of our leaders and right living on the part of everyone, and those of us who live some distance from any other events need some other way to participate.

What can we do on October 24? We can pray, wherever we are. Pray the prayer on p. 827 of The Book of Common Prayer “For the Conservation of Natural Resources”, or the prayer on p. 828 “For the Future of the Human Race”. Pray for the people who will meet in Copenhagen in December to work toward a world climate treaty. Pray for the people who stand in the way of immediate harm from floods and disease and hunger related to climate change. Pray for the birds or the sea creatures or land animals. Pray for trees. Or pray a simple prayer: “Thank you, God, for the Earth” or “Holy One, give us wisdom and courage to be good stewards”.

Let’s pray at least 350 prayers for the Earth this Saturday. If you plan to participate, leave a comment at the end of this post, or send a message to deaconbetsy@windstream.net . You might indicate how many prayers you expect to pray. (I know some folks in our diocese use Anglican prayer beads; these could help us keep count.) We might have ten of us praying 35 prayers or 35 of us praying ten prayers!

Our prayers for the Earth will be listed as an event for Climate Action Day. Since we need to give a location, I’ll list it as Grand Island, but I hope we have lots of folks from all over Nebraska joining us. And if you follow the Green Sprouts blog from somewhere else and want to be part of this, prayers know no geographical boundaries. Just let us know you plan to participate so we can have some idea of how many prayers are being prayed!

In this critical time for the environment, prayers every day for those making decisions that will affect all of our lives for generations to come are more important than ever. It’s one of the best contributions we can make as people who know and trust in God, and who value the good creation that God created through love.

Nebraska Green Sprouts: Blog Action Day 09

Today bloggers around the world are participating in Blog Action Day, a huge conversation of sorts, all writing about climate change from the perspective of each blog’s topic. This blog is about creation care, about caring for the Earth with the understanding that the Earth is part of God’s creation. More particularly, this is a blog about creation care in the context of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska.

Nebraska Episcopalians have all sorts of reasons to care about climate change. We are, after all, not only Episcopalians who live in Nebraska, but Christians, Americans, parents and grandparents, and part of the family of God’s children that lives all over this planet. But what do we bring to the conversation as Nebraska Episcopalians in particular?

As Nebraskans, we have a strong connection to the land. Nebraska is still a primarily rural state. We are aware of the weather; we know the effects of unseasonable weather patterns, of storms and temperature fluctuations and rainfall patterns on our lives and livelihoods. As farmers and hunters, Nebraskans are aware of the migration patterns of animals. And we are in the heart of the spring flyway for many migratory birds, including the Sandhill cranes, and are aware of the effects climate change has already had on some bird populations and the potential for more dramatic effects in the future.

Several of the theological reasons for caring about climate change can be summarized by consideration of the Great Commandment Jesus gave us: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving God with our entire being entails sharing God’s love for creation, and being reverent towards God’s good creation. God gave humankind dominion over creation, and climate change brings a great threat of species extinction. Engaging our hearts, souls, and minds in caring for the Earth is part of loving God the Creator.

Love for our neighbors calls us to focus on the effects of climate change on human beings. Flooding, famine, and other effects of climate change on human populations tend to have their first and worst effects on the poorest people of the world. Caring about the people whose homes and lives are threatened by climate change is part of loving our neighbors in the global community.

The Episcopal Church endorses the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the MDGs is to ensure environmental stability, which includes climate stability. The eight MDGs are interrelated, though; climate stability is bound up with the eradication of hunger, with combating malaria and other diseases, with developing global partnerships for development, and in reducing child mortality. The MDGs give Episcopalians a framework for loving our neighbors around the world, and point clearly to climate change as a focal point for truly caring about our brothers and sisters.

Our baptismal covenant binds us to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. Given the potential for climate change to widen the gap between poor people and rich people and to cause famine, flooding, the displacement of large numbers of people, and possibly wars as resources become scarcer, our baptismal covenant calls us to pay attention to climate change. The baptismal covenant also binds us to resist evil and, whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to God. The Catechism in The Book of Common Prayer says that sin is “the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.” Choosing our own convenience over a healthy relationship with God’s creation is sin.

I’ve had wonderful conversations with people in the Diocese of Nebraska who are very clear about the interconnectedness of creation care, love of neighbor, and love of God. People who care for ranchland, grow crops, and care for gardens understand the importance of creation care; people who know the beauty of Nebraska sunsets, the starry skies in the Sandhills, and the wonder of the annual crane migration understand that God’s creation is good and that God’s love for us and our love for God are connected to our experiences of the goodness of creation.



You can go to http://www.blogactionday.org/ to follow the conversation about climate change from the context of other blogs with a wide variety of topics. The website also suggests ways that people who feel moved to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions can get involved.

Hackberry Tree Parable

Wealth, No Camel, A Squirrel, and A Raptor

There was a little bit of drama in the hackberry tree in our yard this week. Thinking about the lectionary readings for tomorrow, I started seeing this drama in terms of the Gospel story (Mark 10: 17-31) about the rich man who wants to know what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life. The answer Jesus gives, which shocks the man and makes him grieve, was “Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Then Jesus goes on to tell the disciples something that’s as daunting for us middle-class Americans as it would have been for this rich man: it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. No camels showed up in my yard this week, but a couple of less exotic creatures did. Given the appearance of these two acting out a little parable in keeping with this week's Gospel reading, it wouldn’t have completely surprised me to see a camel come sauntering down the street.

I was out on our side porch at lunchtime on Friday – back before winter came blowing into Nebraska -- and heard a ruckus up in the hackberry tree. I thought a squirrel had broken a small branch, which happens sometimes (since they sometimes gnaw on the branches as they sit on them), and looked up to see the underside of a big bird of prey – some sort of raptor with white feathers on its breast, which was the part of the bird I could see -- who was crashing down through the branches. The falling raptor dropped a squirrel -- splat -- on our driveway. As soon as the bird let go of the squirrel, it was able to get itself straightened out and it soared up and flew away. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t see the bird well enough to identify it. Whatever it was, this squirrel must have been fighting enough to interfere with the bird’s ability to fly off with it.

The squirrel ran really fast to the tree and ran way up to where there’s a nest. Lots of other squirrels appeared and chattered their alarm, but above the sound of that I heard what I can only describe as squirrel sobs from up in the nest, a softer, very rhythmic form of squirrel chatter. After the others quieted down, clusters of these squirrel sobs continued off and on for several minutes. The poor little thing was terrified, and possibly hurt.

Birds of prey most often succeed in hunting the weakest animals, the most vulnerable. The squirrel this one chose wasn’t as weak as it appeared evidently, and gave the bird a great deal of trouble. What’s interesting in light of the Gospel story is that it wasn’t just in letting go of something that the bird was able to fly freely again, but in letting go of the smaller, weaker creature on which it was preying. This little drama as it relates to the Gospel lesson wasn’t only about the raptor and its need to let go of a difficult weight, but about the squirrel and its desire to survive. The Gospel story isn’t only about us and our need to be detached from things that get in the way of discipleship; it’s also about those who have less power, wealth, and strength but about whom Christ cares very much. We aren’t truly free of the things that weigh us down until we join Christ in caring for and about the poor and vulnerable. It isn’t enough to go off and take a vow of poverty and simplify our lives; true discipleship involves noticing and caring for people who have to worry more about not having enough than about having too much.

Part of good environmental stewardship is considering the people who are most affected by pollution and climate change, letting go of our environmentally harmful practices so that others can have life.

**
The Asia-Pacific region has had earthquakes, a deadly tsunami, and typhoons in recent weeks. This week in particular, while we are thinking about whether we can make an internal, spiritual shift to detach ourselves from our possessions and follow Christ, many people in the Philippines lost everything as mud rumbled down hillsides onto villages below. Climate scientists don’t know with certainty if the number and intensity of typhoons in recent years is a result of climate change, but they do expect that as climate change accelerates, we will see more and more storms of this sort in this part of the world.

If the stories from the Asia-Pacific region in recent weeks have touched your heart, consider making a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development. Click here for their most recent press release about responding to the multiple natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region.