Speaking of Ice...

...as we were recently...

Warmer temperatures are finally here for the weekend, but the sort of weather we associate with springtime in Nebraska has been slow in coming. In central Nebraska earlier this week, we were coping with a combination of rain (some of it freezing), sleet, and snow. Most of us were wishing the ice would simply go away!

Springtime is beginning in the Arctic as well. According to the University of Colorado-Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) , the Arctic sea ice probably reached its greatest extent for this year on March 7. Before the melting began, the maximum extent of this year’s Arctic sea ice was tied for the smallest extent of ice since record-keeping began in 1979. The final analysis of the 2010-2011 winter season for Arctic sea ice will be published later this month.

This year’s maximum sea ice extent was 463,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average. The UPI story Study: 2011 arctic ice extent is down quotes a CU-Boulder release that gives a useful picture of how big an area this is: an area slightly larger than the states of California and Texas combined.

The extent of ice coverage at the end of the summer will be watched closely. This video from the NSIDC shows the changes in Arctic sea ice coverage in September for the thirty years between 1979 and 2009.

The effects of climate change on the Arctic are huge. A team of climatologists from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and South Korea has predicted some of the impacts of climate change on the Arctic by 2099.

Many polar and subpolar regions may well be replaced by temperate regions by the end of this century. While the endangered polar bear has become the iconic representative of the expected changes, the effects of climate change on human economy, on local cultures, is of great concern. Plant and animal species and cultures are all in danger of extinction. That scientists from Nebraska and Colorado are studying the Arctic ice suggests that what is happening there has some importance to us in Nebraska.

Knowing something about what is happening in the Arctic can make us wonder how to respond to something so big and far away. The most important response we can give as Christians is to pay attention to what is happening. While it is very important for us to exercise good stewardship of our resources so that we reduce our own contributions to the carbon emissions driving global warming, it is also important for us do something less concrete: to be prayerful witnesses to what is happening. To acknowledge it, to see it, to be truth-tellers is part of our work as Christians. To remember it when we pray, when we make decisions about our own use of resources, and when we speak with other people and participate in the political process are all ways to serve as Christ’s body in the world.

Sandhill Crane Sunday

St. Stephen’s, Grand Island, incorporated the sandhill crane migration into our liturgy on Sunday, the third year of celebrating Crane Sunday. Because the crane migration peaks in mid- to late March, this Sunday falls during Lent. While it may at first seem a little unusual to have any sort of special celebration during Lent, the juxtaposition of our Lenten journey with the arrival of the cranes on their annual journey says something about the way Christians live in the world and about our incarnational theology.

Highlighting the connections between the salvation story and what is happening in this particular place at this particular time helps us pin Lent down to our lives and our world. The salvation story is easy to ignore once we leave church if it does no more than float somewhere up above our lives. When we see the ways in which it connects to our lives and our world, the Word remains enfleshed, incarnate, for us. Seeing the connection helps us understand what it means for God to come and dwell among us.

This Crane Sunday our weather in central Nebraska was still wintry. I drove to Grand Island partway in freezing rain and partway in snow, past dances of cranes that were well camouflaged with their gray plumage in the foggy fields. The origami cranes decorating the church took on extra meaning this year as we keep the people of Japan in our prayers. Our Christian education classes had made “bejeweled birds” on which the children had written their sometimes poignant hopes for renewal or new life at Easter. The reality of the salvation story for our own lives becomes more vivid with a range of particular concerns in mind, from the Japanese people on the other side of our planet to the children in our own parish, and with our gratitude for the abundance of God’s creation that we see with thousands of birds flying through the Central Flyway.

Our lessons Sunday morning included Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42, both reminding us of the importance of water, with Jesus talking about living water in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Sunday’s sermon on these texts can be read here.

In Sunday’s Psalm (Psalm 95), God says, “Harden not your hearts as your forebears did in the wilderness.” One way to soften our hearts so that we can receive the living water that Christ offers in abundance is to go outside and give thanks for the wonders we find there, for the cranes, the other spring birds, the sky and the rivers and even the snowflakes, sleet, and rain.

Eco-Palms for Episcopalians

With Palm Sunday only four weeks away, Eco-Palms are in the news again. Episcopal News Service published a piece Wave sacramental eco-palms this Palm Sunday by Michael Schut, the environmental and economic affairs officer for the Episcopal Church.

The February 20 Green Sprouts post about Eco-Palms talked about the benefits of using Eco-Palms for Palm Sunday instead of palms harvested in other ways. The way they are harvested is not only environmentally sustainable, but it results in better pay for the workers. And as that post reported, we found last year at St. Stephen’s that these palms enhanced our liturgy.

In today’s ENS piece , Michael Schut writes:

And know that there are real people, real forests behind those fronds. Know that there are real communities benefiting from your purchase of Eco-Palms. Kattie Sumerfeld works for Lutheran World Relief and recently visited some of those communities. She wrote when she returned of Eliasin Visente Gonzales who told her that "Eco-Palms allow him to buy shoes and clothes for his seven children;" and she described hearing from the town council that "their kids actually stay in the communities instead of migrating to the U.S. for work."

Our choice of palms for Palm Sunday is one more place where the best choice for the environment is also the best choice for economic justice and stability for communities.

Reading Paul in Early Spring

An Observation

Today’s warmer temperatures in central Nebraska made it possible to sit outside on our porch this morning to read the Daily Office lessons. The warm and humid air smelled and felt like spring, and songs from a variety of birds sounded like spring.

It was a good setting for today’s Epistle lesson, Romans 1:16-24. In this letter to the Romans, Paul states that knowledge about God is available to everyone: “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.” (Romans 1:20) God isn’t visible to us, but the world is there for us to see and experience. Paul is saying that thinking about the order and wonder of the world that we can experience through our senses can help us understand something about God’s divine nature and power; we can reason from what we can know through sense experience to some knowledge of God.

On a fine spring morning, I’m inclined to agree with Paul.

Celebrate! (Into the Wilderness of Lent)

Quakes, Tsunami, and Spring Migration

Here in the Platte River valley the first week of Lent, the annual spring migration of the sandhill cranes has reached its peak. During the day, the fields are full of cranes feeding and dancing and making the sound that in this part of the world means the beginning of spring. At night, the cranes gather in the river for protection from predators. People fill blinds along the river and stand along bridges to see and hear the arrival of the cranes at sunset and to watch them take off again at sunrise. The Rowe Sanctuary offers a Cranecam that shows some of the wonder of this. (Sunrise and sunset are both around 7:40 now.)

Of course, the first week of Lent has also brought news of the 9.0 earthquake in Japan and the tsunami, aftershocks, and dangers from damaged nuclear power plants that have followed. The news, photos, and videos coming out of Japan have helped us see some pieces of this disaster that is too big for us to truly comprehend. It’s so big that its impact is felt here; we talk with one another about the latest news reports, we pray for the people of Japan, and we look for ways to help.

When we drove from Hastings to Grand Island for church on Sunday – a gray day with a “wintry mix” of showers, sleet, and snow – the fields were full of cranes. Nearly as dramatic were the fields of snow geese. Later that day I returned to Grand Island after checking the news and seeing updates about the extent of the damage in Japan and estimates of the loss of life. The day was still gray, and the mood of the weather seemed to match the news.

And then, on my way home, having brought communion and Ash Wednesday ashes to some of our older parishioners who can’t come to church any more and thinking about Lent and Japan and hoping the road wouldn't turn icy before I got home, I saw some movement in the gray fields. Some of the cranes were dancing. When cranes dance, they leap into the air and flap their wings. Some of the cranes are dancing in this video shot near the Platte:

On a sunny spring day, this dance fits right in with the mood of the day, and we humans think the birds must be sharing our joy. On this still wintry Sunday with such weighty news in the world, I was surprised to experience the same level of joy when the cranes began to dance.


The Omaha World Herald reported yesterday on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s visit to the Rowe Sanctuary on Monday. Secretary Salazar, says the article, stood “silent and transfixed by the spectacle” before saying, “It’s inspirational.” His reaction is typical of people who come from other places and see the cranes for the first time. It’s a spiritual experience.

On Sunday, March 27, St. Stephen’s in Grand Island will have a special Crane Sunday to celebrate the migration, reflect on its spiritual elements, and talk about the connection between that sort of experience and what we typically talk about on Sunday mornings in the church. Because the cranes come in March, our Crane Sunday always ends up being a Sunday in Lent. Far from detracting from a proper observance of Lent, we have found that celebrating something that is so much a part of our lives during Lent deepens our Lenten journey. We don’t forget the wilderness of Lent; the wilderness of Lent helps us to appreciate the joy of the crane migration and the other signs of spring.

In our part of the world, the annual visit of the sandhill cranes is commonplace; some Nebraskans wonder what all the fuss is and can’t understand why people from faraway places come to see the spring migration in the Platte Valley. Why would we celebrate something so ordinary, and especially during Lent?

A friend who lives in Tokyo sent me a message early today. Kirk describes what it is like in Tokyo right now -- empty grocery shelves, lines at gas stations, unpredictable train service and power supply, and aftershocks from the earthquake – and says everyone looks forward to a return to normalcy whenever that may happen. He knows it is much worse to the north, and that the return to normalcy there will be years in coming. He ends his message with this: “Celebrate your normal, everyday lives.”

Everyone is invited to join us at St. Stephen’s at 9:30 on March 27 to celebrate our normal, everyday lives in central Nebraska and to focus on the wonder and joy that is ours for the noticing.

Ash Wednesday

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

Recently a relatively new acquaintance in the diocese told me that when he first met me and heard me talk about my ministry, he didn’t understand why anyone would do environmental ministry; for him it didn’t seem to fit the model of other ministries of the church. But he then said that after hearing me talk about creation care, he had begun to notice how often we pray for the earth and its resources, for God’s creation, and realized that concern for creation is found throughout our liturgy. I thought about this conversation after our midday Ash Wednesday service because repentance for our poor stewardship of the environment and for our lack of concern about that poor stewardship is spelled out clearly in these lines from the Litany of Penitence.

In fact, many of the sins we confess in the Litany of Penitence are directly related to issues of environmental stewardship: self-indulgence, exploitation of other people, an intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our blindness to human needs and suffering (including the suffering of people whose health is affected by air and water pollution or climate change). As we pray this litany on Ash Wednesday, it’s easy to read the words and move on to the next part of the litany without connecting what we are saying to any particular actions or situations; it’s easy to be sincere about our penitence on an abstract level without connecting that penitence to areas where we could and should make changes in our own lives. It might be good to find some quiet time early on during Lent to pray through the Litany of Penitence (pp. 267-269 in the Book of Common Prayer) slowly, taking the time to think more specifically about where we have fallen short so that we can truly repent and turn toward better ways of living our lives.

Today’s lectionary text from Isaiah (Isaiah 58:1-12) says that a true fast, a day truly acceptable to the Lord, consists of acts of mercy and justice. When we do these things, says Isaiah, we will find ourselves strengthened and guided by God. The passage ends with the statement that those who meet the needs of others and relieve suffering will “be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in”. Pollution and climate change are leaving many places where people live in need of restoration. God has work for us to do when we get up off our knees.

Lenten Alternatives

Spring is coming, and Lent begins tomorrow. Anticipating Lent, I've been paying attention to incoming messages about Lenten disciplines that are intended to help us become more faithful stewards of the environment. These are pre-packaged Lenten disciplines; participants commit to the general idea of carbon reduction or environmental stewardship, and then follow daily suggestions for carrying out that commitment. They are especially useful for folks who want to do something to become better stewards but who don’t know where to begin.

Along with looking at these creative approaches to Lenten fasting, I’ve been thinking about my own Lenten discipline, trying to get a feel for whether one of these programs or some other discipline feels like something that might best deepen my own discipleship during Lent. For this post, I’m offering links to a couple of the growing number of environmentally-related “pre-packaged” Lenten disciplines, then describing another alternative coming from a slightly different direction.

The United Church of Christ has developed an Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast. Participants will receive a daily e-mail message with a suggestion for reducing carbon. A nice feature of this program is the promise that, where possible, a quantitative measure of the carbon reduction from the activity will be provided – an important feature for people who want to get some sense of how much difference such activities can make. Since this program will come as daily e-mails, I haven’t seen an overview of the activities, but it sounds as if it will be very focused on actual carbon reduction. As an alternative to signing up for the e-mails, the Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast has a Facebook page where the daily activities will be posted.

Several other carbon fast programs combine true carbon-fasting activities with activities that develop good stewardship in other areas. Earth Ministries and Washington Interfaith Power & Light offers a carbon fast calendar that suggests a carbon-reducing activity on most days with an occasional activity focused on other areas, such as water conservation. Having this program as a calendar to view on the computer or to print makes it especially attractive for families taking on the discipline together. Children can anticipate the activities for coming days, and parents can think ahead about how to carry out the activity in their particular household.

The Tearfund in the UK has designed a carbon fast that includes activities that address overconsumption and nudge us closer to simpler living. The Tearfund is dedicated to reducing poverty, so their program is very intentional about setting carbon-reduction and the other activities within the context of global justice.

As an alternative to carbon fasts that mirror the traditional fasts of Lent, we might do something that shifts the focus just a bit to the sort of self-renewal that leads to renewal not only to an ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship but also to the sort of deep connection with the non-human world that deepens our relationship with God the Creator and God’s Son through whom, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, all things were made.

It’s fairly simple: Find a way each day to honor God through some action that tends to the connection we have to God through creation, and include a prayer of gratitude for God’s creation as part of that action. Some days this may look similar to the carbon fast activities, being intentional about caring for some aspect of God’s creation while giving thanks for that aspect of creation. Other days it might be something that doesn’t look at all like a fast -- spending some time really looking at the spring flowers that will begin blooming during Lent, going out to see the Sandhill cranes, planning or planting an early spring garden. It may simply be sitting in the sun and listening to the birds.

The point is to find something that works to renew our connection to the earth in a way that we experience as a deepening of our connection to God and to be intentional about thanking God for some specific part of creation. The hope is that the renewal of that connection and our gratitude for creation will bring us closer to God, to a place where care for God’s creation flows naturally from our relationship to God.