The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has endorsed a booklet published today that encourages Christians to play their part in helping to stop climate change.

Aiming to counter the idea that stark warnings on the state of the environment seem too colossal for individuals to make any real difference, the book called 'How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Christian?', argues that Christians not only can have an impact by adapting their lifestyle, but actually have a moral duty to do so.

Find out more.

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd, Dean
Washington National Cathedral
Easter III, April 22, 2007
www.cathedral.org/cathedral/worship/stl070422.html

I didn’t think spring was ever going to come. I mean it. Never. Maybe it was the temperature on Easter Day, which as someone pointed out was 5 degrees colder than it had been on Christmas Day. Or maybe it has been these past weeks of April when a grey chill, wind, and rain greeted us anytime we ventured outdoors.

But it’s here. Daffodils have yielded to tulips. Leaves have returned to the trees’ skeletons. The grass is green again, and the blossoms and flowers are everywhere. I remember when I lived in Boston a friend saying that in New England spring comes in like a Yankee lady— reserved, proper, slow to reveal her charms. But in the South, spring comes in like a hussy—brash, flashy, showing off. I’m glad to say that Washington has all the signs of a Southern spring!

To see the earth come alive around here is to be dazzled. It must be what the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins felt a century ago when he gazed around at spring bursting out and wrote, “What is all this juice and joy?” And the words of another Hopkins poem leap to mind on a day like this:

The world is charg’d with the grandeur of God
It will flame out like shining from shook foil.

The rebirth of spring has for centuries been associated in the Northern Hemisphere with Easter. Even the word “Easter” seems to come from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Christians have seen in the return of life to nature an image of God’s triumph over everything that dies. In the flowering of dogwood and rhododendron we can see pointers to the power that moves through all creation bringing life out of death.

The earth comes alive, and that is itself a sort of miracle. But today as we gather here on this Earth Day we have to face the fact that that miracle is terrifyingly fragile, and that “this fragile earth, our island home,” as our Prayer Book calls it, is in deep trouble.

Read more »

Jesus came from farming country in the northern part of Palestine. The land is fertile and crops grow well there. I remember sitting on a hillside once looking down on some farmland up in the Galilee, and thinking how much it looked like some parts of the Midwest! And, while we think Jesus grew up in a town, perhaps not far from the “big city” of Sepphoris, he would have been surrounded by farmers and farm land.

That undoubtedly accounts for the frequency of agricultural images he uses – such as those in today’s Gospel – about scattering seed (“broadcasting” as it is known) and about the mystery of life and growth which all good farmers understand. Farming is not all about technique and expertise. A lot of it depends on geography and on the cycles of weather – God’s grace…or Providence…or good luck (depending on your theology!)

- From the blog "ecubishop" Bishop Christopher Epting, Staff Officer for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Epting continues with how all of us can be involved with the feeding of the nation and the world:

But we can be involved in agriculture. Even here in the city. And we can make a difference. Our church is trying to make a difference. According to a recent ENS press release: “As Congress begins the work of reauthorizing the US farm bill, more than a dozen Churches and faith based organizations, including the Episcopal Church, have come together…to urge major changes in US agricultural policy aimed at reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting the livelihood of farmers and rural communities in the US and around the world.”

“The ‘Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill’ which includes Christian denominations, major faith based organizations and the National Council of Churches…has developed a statement of legislative principles for farm bill reform.” According to those principles, the 2007 farm bill should:

*Increase investments that combat rural poverty and strengthen rural communities

*Strengthen and expand programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the US

*Strengthen and increase investment in policies that promote conservation and good stewardship of the land

*Provide transitions for farmers to alternative forms of support that are more equitable and do not distort trade in ways that fuel hunger and poverty

*Protect the health and safety of farmworkers

*Expand research related to alternative, clean and renewable forms of energy

*Improve and expand international food aid in ways that encourage local food security.”

To find out more on what you can do to support this legislation go to The Episcopal Public Policy Network, A Farm Bill to Feed our Nation and the World.

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We must see everything, and everyone, as interconnected and intended by God to live in relationship.

Two of the most significant crises facing our world -- climate change and deadly poverty -- offer an example of such interconnectedness. By understanding how the two crises, and the people they affect, are connected, we can begin to understand how humanity can triumph over both. Extreme poverty -- that is, poverty that kills -- afflicts more than a billion of God's people around the world. Nearly 30,000 of these people will die today. That's 1 every 3 seconds. The factors that propel this kind of deadly poverty include hunger, diseases like AIDS and malaria, conflict, lack of access to education and basic inequality. Climate change threatens to make the picture even more deadly. As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe-weather events around the world, poor countries -- which often lack infrastructural needs like storm walls and water-storage facilities -- will divert previous resources away from fighting poverty in order to respond to disaster. Warmer climates will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and tax the ability of poor countries to respond adequately. Perhaps most severely, changed rain patterns will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only 4 percent of cropped land is irrigated, leaving populations without food and hamstrung in their ability to trade internationally to generate income.

Conversely, just as climate change will exacerbate poverty, poverty also is hastening climate change.
____

The author is Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Read the entire essay here in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

The G8 nations are meeting in a few weeks. Climate change, extreme poverty and the potential of the Millennium Development Goals to make a difference will be a major part of their agenda. The Episcopal Church Public Policy Network has issued the following alert and call to action:

This summer marks the half way point for the targeted achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite high promises from G8 leaders, a new report this week by DATA, one of the Episcopal Church’s partner organizations, shows that while progress has been made in some of the anti-poverty commitments made by G8 leaders at their 2005 summit, much bolder action is needed if the MDGs are to be met by 2015. (www.thedatareport.org)

In a few short weeks, leaders of the G8 nations, including President Bush, will meet in Germany with an agenda that includes addressing the onset of climate change throughout the world, as well as the world’s progress toward eradicating deadly poverty and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Write President Bush, the G8 must keep their commitments to the MDGs and need to address the role that climate change will play in their success.

This is a critical time for the climate and the MDGs. On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle printed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s opinion column urging that world leaders consider the two issues simultaneously, as climate change propels global poverty and global poverty propels climate change. "By understanding how the two crises, and the people they affect, are connected, we can begin to understand how humanity can triumph over both," wrote the Presiding Bishop. To read the full article, Click Here

Send a message to President Bush now -- Urge him to work with other G8 leaders to keep the promises they have made toward meeting the MDGs, and in particular, to address the relationship between global poverty and climate change as part of this meeting’s agenda:
Click here

From Episcopal Life Online:

Citing the need for immediate attention to serious issues of global warming, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will represent the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) at a June 7 Congressional hearing on global warming.

Jefferts Schori will testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at 10 a.m., Room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building. The committee will hear from several leaders of faith groups in "An Examination of the Views of Religious Organizations Regarding Global Warming."

The Presiding Bishop, who in 1983 earned her doctorate in oceanography, approaches the issue of climate change from both scientific and theological perspectives. Her testimony to the Senate Committee notes the specific effects of climate change on those living in poverty. Jefferts Schori regularly emphasizes care for the environment as part of the Millennium Development Goals, affirmed within the Episcopal Church's current top mission priority.

It's all here.

The hearing will be webcast HERE

The Seattle Times editorial columnist, Lance Dickie, reports in A Covenant to take care of the Creator's handiwork:

Fifteen years after the pioneering Earth Ministry was founded in Seattle to link religion and the environment, the nation's attention will be drawn back to the city toward another, potentially broader spiritual awakening.

Next April, the national Episcopal Church will team with Episcopalians in Western Washington to host a conference to launch a multifaith campaign on climate change.

At the event, the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will invite national organizations of Christians, Jews and Muslims to commit to reducing the carbon footprint of their churches, temples and mosques by a minimum of 50 percent by 2015.

The audacious idea was unveiled in Seattle two weeks ago at a four-day interfaith gathering to explore the role and responsibility of religion in caring for the Earth. Bishop Steven Charleston, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., closed out the session with a sermon that laid out the concept and the challenge.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has received an award from UK parliamentarians for his work in helping to promote ecologically friendly causes - including a Church of England carbon-cutting campaign.

As reported by Ekklesia,

"The award, presented by the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group, recognises the work of the Archbishop and the Church of England in promoting sustainable energy issues to the public and to policy makers."

Affirming the impact of the Archbishop's leadership, "a Lambeth Palace spokesperson added that the award recognised the importance of the issue for faith communities. "The Church of England has made climate change and environmental sustainability central issues in recent years, at home and overseas. This award for the Archbishop of Canterbury from PRESAG members is a timely recognition of the central role people of faith have in providing for the responsible stewardship of our planet."

"The ethical aspect of the challenge of climate change is increasingly recognised, and in choosing to confer this award on the Archbishop, PRESAG [the Associate Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group] acknowledges just how important moral and spiritual leadership on environmental matters continues to be."

The Church of England is currently engaged in a national campaign known as Shrinking the Footprint.

Read it all here.

The Austin American-Statesman shines a spotlight on local churches that are working to become more eco-friendly:

For years, environmentalism has been preached from the pulpit as a form of Christian stewardship. Now, a growing number of Central Texas churches are turning those teachings into action by going green as they expand to accommodate growing congregations.

In San Marcos, St. Mark's Episcopal Church has bought land for a new church and is weighing options for green construction, including solar panels, rainwater collection systems and concrete floors that would help keep it cool.

"We're supposed to take care of the Earth, not just take what we can get from it," said Larry Hanson, chairman of the church's building committee.

The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, which includes parts of Central Texas, has set up a Web site explaining how churches can build in environmentally sensitive ways.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Dripping Springs recently completed a church that has double-paned, tinted glass - "70 percent of the time, we don't even have to turn on a light," said the Rev. Nancy Coon - and a zoned heating and air-conditioning system so the church can heat or cool only the areas that are occupied.

The complete article is under this blog entry on the Daily Green. Episcopal Life Online also covers the article here.

And for more environmental initiatives by Episcopal churches see today's essay by The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston at our companion blog, Daily Episcopalian.

The Living Church Foundation also looks at environmental stewardship from another angle in its current issue, examining "viral marketing" through electronic communications with respect to how it's helping the Episcopal Ecological Network get the word out about news and events.

An incoming e-mail announces an event of interest for members of the Episcopal Ecological Network (EpEN). The EpEN’s communicator reads the message and decides to send it to all network members. With a few mouse clicks, the e-mail’s contents are sent to recipients in some 25 diocesan-level and five congregation-level environmental commissions, committees, and working groups. These leaders, in turn, send the message to their members. In a matter of a few hours, more than 1,000 passionate and interested Episcopalians in the United States and overseas will have received word about the event.

Before the explosion of the internet, dissemination of such information would have taken days, if not weeks, to reach the same number of people. If the event were time-sensitive, such as a request to call a congressional representative or a notice about a special seminar, many individuals would not hear about it until it was too late.

Timely communication is one way that EpEN members are involved in caring for God’s creation, led by a working group of 14 individuals from 12 dioceses. But what is it about caring for God’s creation that keeps these individuals and groups talking and working together?

The rest, with specific examples, is here.

The Washington Post this morning has this page A01 story on the growing interest evangelicals are taking in the environment. An excerpt:

Denise Kirsop donned a white plastic moon suit and began sorting through the trash produced by Northland Church.

She and several fellow parishioners picked apart the garbage to analyze exactly how much and what kind of waste their megachurch produces, looking for ways to reduce the congregation's contribution to global warming.

"I prayed about it, and God really revealed to me that I had a passion about creation," said Kirsop, who has since traded in her family's sport-utility vehicle for a hybrid Toyota Prius to help cut her greenhouse gas emissions. "Anything that draws me closer to God -- and this does -- increases my faith and helps my work for God."

Her conversion to environmentalism is the result of a years-long international campaign by British bishops and leaders of major U.S. environmental groups to bridge a long-standing divide between global-warming activists and American evangelicals.

The Washington Post this morning has this page A01 story on the growing interest evangelicals are taking in the environment. An excerpt:

Denise Kirsop donned a white plastic moon suit and began sorting through the trash produced by Northland Church.

She and several fellow parishioners picked apart the garbage to analyze exactly how much and what kind of waste their megachurch produces, looking for ways to reduce the congregation's contribution to global warming.

"I prayed about it, and God really revealed to me that I had a passion about creation," said Kirsop, who has since traded in her family's sport-utility vehicle for a hybrid Toyota Prius to help cut her greenhouse gas emissions. "Anything that draws me closer to God -- and this does -- increases my faith and helps my work for God."

Her conversion to environmentalism is the result of a years-long international campaign by British bishops and leaders of major U.S. environmental groups to bridge a long-standing divide between global-warming activists and American evangelicals.

General Theological Seminary in New York City, will begin construction this month on of one of the largest geothermal projects in the Northeast, converting the school's present heating-cooling system, powered by fossil fuel, to a new energy-efficient geothermal system. Drilling is expected to begin August 7 on a series of wells along the Tenth Avenue side of the campus in front of the soon-to-be-completed Desmond Tutu Center. In just the first ten years of the new system's operation, which was approved by Community Board 4 last summer, the Seminary will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14,000 tons. The need for roof-level cooling towers and window air conditioners will be permanently eliminated, helping to preserve the architectural integrity of the campus, an entire city block of historic buildings with a serene and open interior space of lawns and towering trees.

According the seminary web site the project embodies The Episcopal Church's environmental concerns:

The Seminary's geothermal project is a model for the Episcopal Church's long-standing concern for environmental stewardship. By eliminating tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, the initiative makes an exemplary contribution to the effort to stem the tide of global warming, a problem cited by the church's 2003 General Convention as a threat "to God's good creation," one that has a disproportionate impact on "the poorest and most vulnerable in the United States and around the world." By eliminating dependence on fossil fuel to heat and cool 260,000 square feet of buildings, the project is a powerful endorsement of Convention legislation aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuel, which, the Convention said, "harms air quality and public health and is contributing to changes in the global climate that threaten the lives and livelihoods of our neighbors around the world." The General Convention, which meets every three years, attracts approximately 15,000 visitors to its host city. In 2006, in order to offset increased power usage by hotels accommodating Convention participants, the Church purchased green tags 25 percent in excess of the power usage of the convention itself.

Read more here and here

October 4 is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and parishes all around the world are conducting the traditional blessing of the animals. The Diocese of Washington is offering resources, including two rites of blessing, and a short video that can be found from the diocesan home page. This is always a good time of year to check in on the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare.

There has been a great deal of attention paid to the new advocacy on environmental issues by several Evangelical leaders. As the Economist reports, environmentalists and religious groups are allies on environmental issues across the globe:

In many other parts of the world, secular greens and religious people find themselves on the same side of public debates: sometimes hesitantly, sometimes tactically, and sometimes fired by a sense that they have deep things in common.

One more case from India: ornithologists who want to save three species of vulture (endangered because cattle carcasses are tainted by chemicals) see their best ally as the Parsees, who on religious grounds use vultures to dispose of human corpses.

In China, organised religion is much weaker and conservationists also feel more lonely. But Pan Yue, the best-known advocate of green concerns within the Chinese government, says ancient creeds, like Taoism, offer the best hope of making people treat the earth more kindly.

Other tie-ups between faith and ecology are less obvious. In Sweden, the national Lutheran Church, working with Japanese Shintos, recently held a multi-faith meeting on forestry. They agreed to set a new standard for the care of forests owned or managed by religious bodies—in other words, they said, 5% of the world's woods.

This month, representatives of many faiths, including a local Lutheran bishop and a shivering Buddhist monk (see above) gathered in Greenland to talk to scientists and ecologists. Patriarch Bartholomew, the senior bishop of the Orthodox Church, led his impressively robed guests in a silent supplication for the planet.

The terms of the transaction between faith and ecology vary a lot. In places like Scandinavia, where religion is weakish, a cleric who “goes green” may reach a wider audience; in countries like India, where faith is powerful, spiritual messages touch more hearts than secular ones do. That doesn't stop some environmental scientists from saying they are being hijacked by clerics in search of relevance. But Mary Evelyn Tucker, of America's Yale University, says secular greens badly need their spiritual allies: “Religions provide a cultural integrity, a spiritual depth and moral force which secular approaches lack.”

Martin Palmer, of the British-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation, says faiths often have the clearest view of the social and economic aspects of an environmental problem. In Newfoundland, he notes, conservationists put curbs on cod fishing—and left the churches to care for families whose living was ruined.

Still, one selling point often used by the religious in their dialogue with science—the fact that faith encourages people to think long-term—may be a mixed blessing. The most pessimistic scientists say mankind has a decade at most to curb greenhouse gases and fend off disastrous global warming; that doesn't leave much time to settle the finer points of metaphysics.

Read it all here.

Lots to choose from in the current Church Times, but imagine walking from Boston to Chicago--a bit farther than that, actually--to make a point about carbon footprints. Eighteen people walked 1,000 miles, through Northern Ireland and around Britain, in the Cut the Carbon walk, sponsored by Christian Aid, that ended on Tuesday in London. The original marchers walked the final mile accompanied by an estimated 2,000 people and ended their journey at St. Paul's Cathedral.

They had started their journey on July 14 in Belfast, coming from countries all around the world--England, Ireland, Kenya, El Salvador, Brazil, India, Tajikistan, Congo, the Phillippines and more. They blogged the walk here, and 1,375 people also followed along on Facebook.

The Church Times reports:

They were greeted by the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu. As a walker himself, he told them not to worry about their blisters, because what mattered was that they had participated.

...

The oldest of the marchers to complete the walk was Merryn Hellier, a Methodist, who is 68. She said that Jesus had been on the march with them, “because so many people had their minds opened to realise the full misery of the problems that people overseas are suffering already”.

The former Bishop of Umzimvubu, Eastern Cape, South Africa, the Rt Revd Geoff Davies, who is 66 and runs the interfaith South African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, and his wife Kate, 56, joined the march at Burton-on-Trent to walk the last 500 miles.

Care for the integrity of creation and sustaining and renewing life on earth was the fifth mark of mission and “core Gospel business”, he said. Climate change was an issue of justice because it hit the poor hardest. “We are seeking justice so we can have peace,” he said. “We are looking to Britain to set a lead.” The Church, as well as environmentalists, should call for “a green sabbath to cut carbon use”.

Tim Jones, 26, from London, had taken three months’ unpaid leave from the World Development Movement charity to join the march. “We hoped to inspire people to campaign,” he said.

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd John Gladwin, told the marchers that they had “ blessed our country and islands with your feet and given us hope for the future”.

The story includes a wonderful picture of several bishops standing with the walkers outside the cathedral. It's here, and you can learn lots more about the walk and the campaign here.

In Australia this week, the Anglican general synod in Canberra has passed a canon "recognising that climate change was a serious threat to present and future generations and seeking to reduce the environmental footprint of the church and its agencies," according to The Age. But what's more curious about the matter of climate change is the public argument going on between the Anglican bishop of Canberra, George Browning, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell.

Bishop Browning, the world's top Anglican environmental spokesman, and Cardinal Pell had a sharp exchange on Wednesday after Bishop Browning said the cardinal was out of step with his church and made no sense on global warming.

Cardinal Pell replied that radical environmentalists needed no help from church leaders to impose their agenda by fear, and that church leaders should be allergic to nonsense.

Yesterday Bishop Browning said the challenge was serious because the issue was so important. "The moral consequences of climate change are of such an order that the church cannot remain outside the debate, and cannot do other than want to be part of the solution."

Bishop Browning said on Wednesday that Cardinal Pell's contribution as Catholic leader was muted because of his environmental stance. "I frankly don't know where he's coming from or why he says what he does."

Cardinal Pell said he was sceptical about extravagant claims of impending man-made climatic catastrophes and that uncertainties on climate change abounded.

With the passing of the canon, Browning challenged Pell to participate in a public debate on the issues at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.

More here

As the Intergovernmental Conference on Climate Change is being held Dec. 3-14 in Bali, Indonesia, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden and the Bishop of the Evangelical Church in Germany are calling for climate justice in a joint letter according to The Christian Post.

In the letter, the church heads claim that “[s]ubstantially reducing global emissions of greenhouse gasses will not avoid the serious impacts of climate change already experienced by many of the world’s most vulnerable communities."

The church leaders called on world governments and the European Commission to “strengthen their commitment to addressing the challenge of climate change.”

Reiterating the concerns of numerous Christian humanitarian agencies including World Vision, Tearfund and Christian Aid, the leaders noted that the impact of climate change is being felt most severely by those who have done the least to cause it.

The letter was sent to the president of the European Commission and the president of the Council of the European Union ahead of the Intergovernmental Conference on Climate Change being held Dec. 3-14 in Bali, Indonesia.

Read the article here.

Dave Walker comments here

Two weeks of international climate talks in Bali marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated Saturday in last-minute compromises and an agreement to adopt a plan by 2009 to fight global warming. What role will churches, synagogues and mosques play in this crisis?

"This is the beginning, not the end," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Associated Press (AP) following the contentious climate conference, which went a day longer than scheduled. "We will have to engage in more complex, long, and difficult negotiations," reports National Geographic

The New York Times reports disappointment with the outcome of the talks especially with the United States role:

The news from Bali was particularly disheartening. The delegates agreed to negotiate by 2009 a new and more comprehensive global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. (Kyoto expires in 2012 and requires that only industrialized nations reduce their production of greenhouse gases.) They pledged for the first time to address deforestation, which accounts for one-fifth of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. And they received vague assurances from China — which will soon overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — and other emerging powers that they would seek “measurable, reportable and verifiable” emissions cuts.

From the United States the delegates got nothing, except a promise to participate in the forthcoming negotiations. Even prying that out of the Bush administration required enormous effort.

Can religious groups play a part in saving the planet?

The World Council of Churches weighed in at the Bali meeting with a call to address climate change with concern for the poorest and weakest - least able to cope with disasters.

On Tuesday, 11 December, conference participants and locals were invited to an ecumenical celebration followed by a panel discussion that featured a video-message from the archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Giving proof of the intention to work not only ecumenically but also closely with people of other faiths, the celebration took place at a Protestant church which is surrounded by a Roman Catholic church, a Hindu temple, a Buddhist sanctuary and a mosque. The delegation lead by Elias Abramides, a Greek Orthodox layman (Ecumenical Patriarchate) from Argentina, monitors the discussions at the governmental level. On Friday, it will present a statement to the plenary of high-level government representatives calling for a "paradigm change" towards the principle of precaution and priority for the poorest and weakest. The WCC also hosted a workshop on greenhouse development rights on Monday.

AlterNet sees a change among Christian denominations across the spectrum.

...despite the differences within and between religious communities in the United States, we are also aware of what joins us together. We share, among other things, a desire and most importantly a religious call to protect all of God's creation. And increasingly, because of its severe, sweeping potential impacts, we have seen the need to come together to address global climate change.

From a religious perspective, global climate change is a moral crisis. Not only because it affects future generations and those around the globe, but because it will hit hardest among the "least of us," the vulnerable communities and people in poverty across the globe. As a community that strives for justice, then, it becomes doubly important that we put our concerted efforts into addressing global climate change.

“In order fully to access, enjoy and profit from our environment, we need to see it as something that does not exist just to serve our needs. Or, to put it another way, we are best served by our environment when we stop thinking of it as there to serve us. When we can imagine what is materially around us as existing in relation to something other than our own purposes, we are free to be surprised, educated and enlarged by it. When we obsessively seek to guarantee that the environment will always be there for us as a storehouse of raw materials, we in fact shrink our own humanity by shrinking what is there to surprise and enlarge, by reducing our capacity for contemplation of what is really other to us.”
- Rowan Williams, Ecology and Economy lecture (2005)

And Dave Walker comments here

UPDATE: Archbishop of Canterbury on youtube about the imperative of action as moral justice. Watch the video here.

Children of Episcopal Church in Everett, Massachusetts released 100 ladybugs in tribute to Rachel Carson, one for each year since the pioneering environmentalist’s birth in 1907, as part of the ceremony of blessing for their churchyard garden.

"To our knowledge, this is the first church in the country to honor Ms. Carson in this way,” said Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran, priest-in-residence.

An American marine biologist and nature writer who died in 1964, Ms. Carson’s books are often credited with launching the global environmental movement.

When Ms. Smith-Moran preached a sermon in the spring about prophets, using Ms. Carson as an example from recent times, parishioners who had contributed plants and effort over the years decided to call their labour of love “Rachel’s Garden,” now a serene spot inviting meditation.

For more on Rachel Carson and the 100th anniversary of her birth click here

Read more of this article here.

Grace Episcopal Church in St. George, Utah is hosting groups opposing the proposed coal fired power plant in nearby Nevada. Among those speaking out is The Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. The Salt Lake City Tribune reports:

Clean-air activists and others plan to send hundreds of heart-shaped valentines to the governors of Utah and Nevada urging them to oppose plans for a $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant near Mesquite, Nev.

Students wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Love your air, stop Toquop" will pass out 250 of the handcrafted valentines at a rally Tuesday at St. George's Grace Episcopal Church.

Attendees then will jot down their objections to the planned 750-megawatt Toquop plant. Half the hearts will go to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.; half will go to Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Plant foe Lin Alder, executive director of Citizens for Dixie's Future, said former Utah Gov. Olene Walker and Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish, head of Utah's Episcopal Diocese, are expected to address the rally.

According to St. George newspaper The Spectrum and Daily News,

The plant is planned for 14 miles northeast of Mesquite, Nev., in Lincoln County, Nev., and has been proposed by Sithe Global Power, LLC Sithe Global Power, LLC, an international development company engaged in the development, construction, acquisition and operation of electric generation facilities in attractive markets around the world.

More on how Utah faith groups are working together on environmental issues here.

St. Paul's in Walnut Creek, Calif. took an interesting route away from carbon power. The chair of the environment committee there started a business called Sonlight Solar, LLC, to provide backing to a project that would convert the church to solar power. Inspired by an October 2006 viewing of An Inconvenient Truth, parishioners found themselves searching for a way to make the solar conversion happen.

Sonlight Solar LLC, as it came to be called, can also take advantage of state incentives and other tax benefits. Initially the church will pay Sonlight for the power generated. Sonlight, from benefits and income, will pay for about half the initial system cost.

The rest of the principal needed was raised by taking bids for loans from parishioners and friends of the parish. Those wishing to bid completed a form stating how much they would like to loan, when they wanted it repaid, and the rate of interest they would like.

"We averaged around 5% on the bids we accepted," says Mattern. "That's better for our investors than they would get on a savings account, but less that the 7.75% we were offered by the Episcopal Church Foundation at the time."

"The parish should begin saving money on the cost of energy in 10 years or less," said Vasquez.

The congregation is implementing composting and other other green practices as well while examining the theological implications of going green.

Read the whole thing here.

Some people give up chocolate. Some people take on an excercise program. Some people set aside time for prayer. This year, Nina Scott is giving up carbon.

The Boston Globe reports:

The retired University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor is hanging wet laundry on a clothesline in her basement to prevent emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from using the dryer. She is carpooling as much as she can and turning off lights more often.

These actions will do little to slow global warming - at most, Scott will probably reduce her "carbon footprint" by 1 or 2 percent during Lent - but she says it's important to do nonetheless.

"For me, it's that connection between protecting nature and faith," said Scott, who is one of about a dozen parishioners at Amherst's Grace Episcopal Church who are following a Lenten carbon "diet" until Easter and, hopefully, beyond. Across New England, a small but growing number of Christians are pledging to reduce energy usage as part of the 40 days of sacrifice and charitable deeds leading up to Easter. These Lenten environmentalists say they have come to realize they are morally bound to help protect God's creation from the threat of human-made global warming, and Lent's season of reflection is an ideal time to start making changes.

Sue Butler of Cambridge stopped eating meat after learning how energy intensive its production can be. Lucy Robinson of Amherst installed a low-flow showerhead to cut her use of hot water. The First Church of Christ in Longmeadow will give out "eco-palms" - plants grown and harvested without harming the environment - on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. Leftover palms are burned and used for Ash Wednesday the following year, so in some churches, even the ashes that will be smeared on foreheads next year will be eco-friendly.

The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is circulating green Lent ideas to its churches, suggesting, for example, that worshipers use candles instead of lights on Sundays and eat only locally grown foods to avoid the energy used to transport food long distances. "If we do our share, there is hope for the earth," said Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Roy F. "Bud" Cederholm Jr.

Religious environmentalism - slowly growing since the 1990s - has exploded along with awareness of human-made climate change. Many faith communities now see the release of heat-trapping gases from power plants and vehicles as the destruction of a precious gift from God.

Read The Boston Globe: Going green for Lent

USA Today says that in many churches Palm Sunday is going green by using palms harvested using an environmentally friendly method.

This year, more than 2,130 congregations across the USA, including Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, will use "eco-palms" that are harvested in a more environmentally friendly way, says Dean Current, program director at the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota.

The number of churches using eco-palms on Palm Sunday — which, in the Christian faith, marks Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem before his death and resurrection — has grown from a pilot program of 5,000 in 2005 to the 600,000 eco-palms ordered for this year's March 16 celebration, Current says. He estimates that is about 1.5% of the 35 million to 40 million palms sold annually for Palm Sunday services in the USA but says he expects the growth to continue.

What makes the eco-palms different is the way that they are harvested, says RaeLynn Jones Loss, a research specialist at the University of Minnesota.

More than 50% of the palms are wasted by traditional methods, Jones Loss says. Harvesters in the eco-palm program are trained to be more selective. They cut only the best fronds, which results in only 5% to 10% waste.

USA Today: Churches go 'green' for Palm Sunday.

Earlier this week, the Pope announced that pollution was a sin. Amid the fanfare regarding that announcement was a related headline: a group of 44 Southern Baptist leaders have signed a document that acknowledges the recklessness of ignoring the mounting evidence for climate change. Jonathan Merritt, spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, was quoted in the New York Times as having had an epiphany in which he realized " when we destroy God’s creation, it’s similar to ripping pages from the Bible.”

Forty-four church leaders signed the document, including the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and two past presidents. It's considered a departure for the denomination, and many other Southern Baptists leaders elected not to sign on.

But Merritt's initiative may signal the growing influence of younger members of the church, according to the story:

A 2007 resolution passed by the convention hewed to a more skeptical view of global warming.

In contrast, the new declaration ... states, “Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed.”

The document also urges ministers to preach more about the environment and for all Baptists to keep an open mind about considering environmental policy.

Jonathan Merritt, the spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative and a seminarian at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., said the declaration was a call to Christians to return to a biblical mandate to guard the world God created.

The Southern Baptist signatories join a growing community of evangelicals pushing for more action among believers, industry and politicians. Experts on the Southern Baptist Convention noted the initiative marked the growing influence of younger leaders on the discussions in the Southern Baptist Convention.

While those younger Baptists remain committed to fight abortion, for instance, the environment is now a top priority, too.

The complete story is here.

The Arizona Republic reports "that church leaders and their congregations are increasingly becoming God's green soldiers" by bringing together spirituality and ecology.

"There is something inside us that responds to the Earth coming alive this time of year," said Doug Bland, chairman of the Earth Care Commission with the Arizona Ecumenical Council. "It's also a time when we face our own failings and sins. And as we look around us, we can see our role in the destruction of the planet."

Parishioners are being asked to embrace environmentalism in a variety of ways. Members of Community Christian Church in Tempe are encouraged to go outside and reflect on Scripture surrounded by nature. Churches in Arizona's Episcopal Diocese have formed green teams that conduct energy audits of individual churches. At First United Methodist Church in Tempe, the most recent adult Bible-study topic was "Taking Care of God's Earth."

Jeff Rossini, 24, of Phoenix, bikes 16 miles to and from work four days a week as a way of practicing his faith.

"One person not driving isn't going to save the world," he said. "But it boils down to me believing that I should be a good steward of the Earth to the best of my abilities and that I am to protect God's creation."

The Diocese of Arizona has a Nature and Spirituality Ministry. They describe their vision and mission as follows:

Our Vision: God, Nature & humanity are all one family in The Kingdom of Green, peacefully coexisting together at home here on Earth.

Our Goals:

* Restore enjoyment, reverence, and kinship to our spiritual relationship with Nature.
* Empower faith communities to bring both hope and action to the climate change issue.
* Identify lifestyle changes that reduce our use of fossil fuels, disposable items, water, and toxins.
* Educate people about the connection between social justice and the care of Nature.

The Arizona Republic writes:

The Episcopal Church has a 30-year history of environmental stewardship, so many of the country's dioceses already have a commission devoted to the cause.

Valley Episcopal Bishop Kirk Smith said many churches have rediscovered their role as caretakers of the Earth.

"As a friend of mine says, 'If God was our landlord, we wouldn't be getting our deposit back,' " said Smith, who recently bought a Toyota Camry Hybrid as a nod to gas conservation.

Two years ago, the Episcopal Diocese founded the Arizona Nature and Spirituality program. Led by Phyllis Strupp, the program helps churches form "green teams." The teams look at what the churches can do to be more environmentally friendly, such as arranging energy audits and replacing incandescent lightbulbs with energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.

The program also presents environmental-education programs to non-Episcopal churches. Although some churches across the country are encouraging things such as a "carbon fast," or abstaining from driving during Lent, Strupp wants her group to be about celebrating nature, not self-denial.

"We're trying to build this sense of hope that springs from a place of appreciation and joy," she said. "We want to raise the awareness that human beings and nature cannot be separate and then encourage action."

Read: Arizona Republic: Churches preaching green.

See also: The Diocese of Arizona Nature and Spirituality Ministry.

The following is Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to the full Senate in support of Climate legislation.

March 31, 2008

United States Senate
Washington, D. C 20510

Dear Senator:

Urgent action by the United States in response to global warming is long past due. As the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, I urge the Senate to take up climate change legislation at the earliest possible moment. As one who has been formed both through a deep faith and as a scientist, I believe science has shown us unequivocally that climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant part by human activities. Climate change is a threat not only to God’s good creation but to all of humanity.

I am pleased that bi-partisan legislation introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner successfully moved through the committee process with many improvements and now awaits Senate debate. Senate bill 2191, America’s Climate Security Act, is a strong step forward in achieving carbon emission reductions. At the same time it includes measures aimed at addressing the needs of the world’s most vulnerable: those, who for demographic reasons such as health or location are most susceptible to the effects of climate change, and those living in poverty at home and around the world. I strongly support this legislation. Our nation, historically the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, has a responsibility to lead the way in addressing the impact of climate change.

Climate change exacerbates extreme world poverty and poverty is hastening global warming. Most people living in poverty around the world lack access to a reliable energy source, forcing many to choose energy sources such as oil, coal, or wood, which threaten to expand significantly the world's greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects of climate change. That need for resources to purchase energy must be addressed in any attempt to lift a community out of poverty. This cycle—poverty that begets climate change and vice versa—threatens the future of all people, rich and poor alike. The poverty cycle driven by climate change will only add to political instability, social violence, and war. Our own domestic tranquility and security are intimately tied to the wellbeing of the poor both here and abroad.

I am grateful for Congressional attention to climate change, and I challenge the Senate to support measures to further strengthen S. 2191 during floor consideration. I want to be absolutely clear that for those living in poverty, inaction on our part now will ultimately be the most costly of all courses of action. I am grateful to the members of Congress who have recognized and spoken out on that very important truth.

Many in the faith community have long been aware of the ways in which our lack of concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors. We cannot love our neighbors unless we care for the creation that supports all our earthly lives. I join my fellow Episcopalians in urging the Senate of the 110th Congress to pass the strongest climate change legislation possible. The acknowledgment of global warming and the Church’s commitment to ameliorating it are a part of the ongoing discovery of God’s revelation to humanity and the call to a fuller understanding of the scriptural imperative to love our neighbor as ourselves. I remain

Your faithful servant,

Katharine Jefferts Schori

Since the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, Earth Day has been an annual event for people around the world to celebrate the earth and renew our commitment to building a safer, healthier and cleaner world for all of us. It is a wonderful opportunity to embrace all of God's creation, raise awareness and pray for "this fragile earth, our island home" (Eucharistic Prayer C, Book of Common Prayer).

There are many resources and websites to assist in the planning of your education offerings and worship celebrations on this day - click on resource for link:

Earth Day Network

Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz!

Green Stories from Episcopalians

Update on Greening Efforts around the Episcopal Church

Worship and Formation Resources

Sample Sermons

Congregational Greening Resources and Ideas

Millennium Development Goal #7 resources

Climate Change and the Church

Healing God's Creation

Lord of Creation: Celtic Spirituality

Lessons Plans from the NCCC Eco-Justice Network! The Poverty of Global Climate Change . .

Green Resolutions passed at General Convention over the past 30 years

Episcopal Environmental Conference in Seattle April 2008.

Letter from Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori to the U.S. Senate regarding climate change.

HT to Living In-Formation - a newsletter from Church Publishing. and the Episcopal Ecological Network.

A message from the leadership team of Episcopal Ecological Network (EpEN) follows:

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