Eco-Reformation – An “Extra” Thing To Do? Or The “Right” Thing To Do?

A retired provincial politician recently commended the initiative and scope of our Eco-Reformation project. However, he also observed that “people may be slow to respond because they don’t have time for something extra.” Interesting.

So, is the care of the planet an “extra” thing for the church to do? Or is the care of the planet the “right” thing for the church to do?

How many times did Jesus teach about the vineyard being left to the responsibility of the stewards while the owner was away? We can allegorize all we want to, but maybe now, in this global environmental crisis, we need to undertake a more literal responsibility for the care of the vineyard – and the ocean – and the forest – and all the creatures and people dependent upon this stewardship.

The care of the planet goes back to our genesis, doesn’t it? Why are we here? To look after, nurture, and protect the creation God has given.

What does the incarnation tell us about the importance of this physical world? This physical world is not merely something God made; it is something God needed to become a part of!

We have been wrong in assuming the planet has been given us for the fulfilment of our own desires. We have been wrong to assume humankind is the pinnacle of creation, somehow above and not part of the web of life.

Some would say that religious folk only have a responsibility to prayer and the after-life. Some would say religious folk have no understanding of the complexities of political, economic and justice issues. We should leave those matters to more intellectual and scientific minds.

But that’s the wrong thing to do.

We have a gospel, a life-giving, life affirming word of hope and transformation to proclaim. A gospel to live out. A gospel the world needs to hear. We do not have a word to condemn the world, but to save it.

When we speak of reconciliation, we speak of restoring relationships at all levels of existence. What does reconciliation look like for the biosphere on the Canadian prairie? In the forests. Beside the sea? What does reconciliation look like where the shorelines rise and the glaciers melt? Where prairie grasses whither in the noonday heat and lowlands flood after torrential rains?

What does justice look like if whole classes of people have no access to clean water; sustainable, affordable food; renewable energy?

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the last judgement of humankind in terms of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, healing the sick, setting free the imprisoned. Jesus could look around him and see what the needs were in his immediate context. If he were describing this judgement today, might he also describe protecting species from extinction; preserving the interdependence of all creatures, human and otherwise? Would he describe healing for a planet that is sick, raging with fever; delirious, crippled and wasting away? Would he describe those as righteous who protect living waters? Would Jesus, miracle worker and creator of the universe, protect the access to sustainable power for all God’s children?

It’s time to read the scriptures with an awareness of our twenty-first century context. It’s time we proclaim the scriptures to a world that is experiencing brokenness in ways never imagined by the first century. The exploitation of the poor by the empire is now as it has always been. But there is a word of grace and truth. It’s an old word. But it’s time to proclaim it in new ways.

It’s the right thing to do.

Environmental Justice and Refugees

The purpose of this Eco-Reformation Project is to kick-start congregations to undertake study and action around faith and the environment.

With this blog, I want to encourage conversations about refugee settlement and its connections to the environment and to justice.

I must admit I am both ignorant and naïve about many things related to refugee settlement. It would be wonderful if congregations hosted non-confrontational conversations with historians, economists, business people, social service agencies, indigenous neighbors and the like, to explore why we have the refugee crisis, the role of environmental factors, and the politics of settlement.

Why is making a home in our country taking so long?

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s my family settled in North Dakota and Manitoba. They were Scandinavians, mostly farmers, some tradesmen. They came by boat and got off the train, got some land, and homesteaded.

One can follow the settlements along the railroad, noting where people got off to make their new homes. This community was Scandinavian. That one was Russian. The next was German.

To the people ten and twenty miles up the road, my people were “those people.” My people looked for places to settle with “our people.” There were certain social drivers for this practice: common language, common culture, common traditions. These people were “family,” whether by blood or not. These were “kin.

Part of the problem with today’s re-settlement, immigration, displacement… what do we call this, anyway? It’s certainly not “welcoming home.”

Home. Homecoming. Refugees, immigrants, displaced persons – are not family.
Today we seem to want essential services in place before resettlement. With our earlier families, pioneer families, there weren’t any. They simply came, shared their trades, built schools, clinics, churches as they kept coming, as resources allowed. They sought and achieved their independence… or is a better word maybe, interdependence?

I would not wish a sod house on anybody. I would not wish a tent encampment in Canada in February or March, especially for two or more years.

So what’s different today?

I’m curious whether my indigenous neighbors, watching Canada’s placement process, would say we are still practicing colonial imperialism. Do we still seek to assimilate those who are different, to make them more like us: white, European?

Do I sound impatient? I think I am more embarrassed. As people of the kindom of heaven, where borders need not be boundaries, we seek resettlement rather than coming “home.”

As the family of God, we speak of “the humanitarian crisis” involving “refugees,” “immigrants,” and “displaced persons”, not brothers and sisters and cousins.

Is this a question of environmental justice? Canadians have land, water, and sustainable food. Land isn’t free anymore. But as our indigenous neighbors question: does anyone own the land and the water? Our Lutheran World Federation says, “the land is not for sale,” and “people are not for sale.” Something is amiss here. Do our words and our actions match?

And if we’re talking about homelessness from those coming across the seas, let’s also talk about homeless across town….

Welcome

Five hundred years since the beginning of Luther’s Reformation. Now what? Will there be another celebration in five hundred years? Will there be another five hundred years?

I was recently told by someone from the Prairie Climate Center that by 2050 the climate in Winnipeg could be like present-day Oklahoma! We have been having a warm Spring. Some have said there was no Spring; we went from Winter immediately into Summer. There have been lots of warm days. The Winnipeg clime usually has twelve days over 30 degrees. Projections for 2030 expect thirty-five such days. By 2070, there could be fifty days with warmer than 30 degree temperatures. What will that mean as “the wind comes sweeping o’er the plains”?

It gives one pause. Maybe some people like to sit on a hot day and let the mind drift. I don’t do well with hot days. But I don’t do well with fear either. I thrive on hope.

I think we’re due for a new Reformation, an Eco-Reformation. This is not a new idea. But it’s an idea that needs legs… and hands… and voices. I think care for the environment is one of the key responsibilities of the Christian community – or any community today. We have a Planet in Peril. But we also have a Promise of Possibilities. I believe the Church is a community of hope, a people with good news. This is not a time of despair. But it must be a time of action!

The Eco-Reformation Project of the Manitoba Northwest-Ontario Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is a small experiment in inviting Lutheran congregations to consider what they have been doing since 2015 on matters of faith and the environment and learn from one another. Then there follows the invitation to undertake one learning event and one action event in the remaining months of 2018.

We begin with a small sampling of congregations. We try something. That’s the key. We learn something. We revise. We rethink. We redirect. Re-form.

We have discovered amazing resources in print, video, worship tools, teaching tools, imaginative initiatives and, best of all, imaginative people. You’ll find those tools elsewhere on this website.

It’s time to expand the network, re-issue the invitation, re-align our energies. So the resources, which grow weekly, are being made available on-line. The invitation to Eco-Reformation, Eco-Theology, Eco-Justice – the project has many names – the project belongs to many people, all people.

It doesn’t matter your age, gender, identity, creed, nationality, language – the care of the planet belongs to us all. This is our home. Home for all people. Home for all creatures.

So, let’s begin. Together. Not wringing our hands in despair, but joining our hands in hope. Let us embrace one another and the elements of creation; let us be embraced by creation and one another, and our work will look like dancing. Our speech will sound like singing. We will recover the song of the universe, the song of the Great Composer, the Creator, the Child among us. Together, for the sake of the earth. For the sake of the Cosmos. For the sake of all that was and is and will be.

I invite you to join in the dance….

Project description

The initiative of this program is to raise awareness of “faith and the environment” within Winnipeg congregations and enable these same congregations to mobilize for action that continues education within those congregations and promotes active responses toward environmental care and sustainability within the broader community.

This program requests seed money to cover operational expenses for meetings, travel and resources. No money is requested for staff compensation; time is being given voluntarily for research, development, administration and facilitation.

The investment of time and energy in matters of faith and the environment – its theology, education and practice – varies greatly. This project will research materials and resources; begin to network human resources from a variety of disciplines (faith, science, economics, politics, and the social sciences); and facilitate conversations and planning for congregational involvement. Ecumenical, Inter-faith and Indigenous perspectives and resources will be sought. We seek to strengthen our theology of faith and the environment, broaden educational initiatives and involve our congregations in additional action strategies.

Training will include conversations with pastors and lay leaders to determine needs and approaches; planning meetings with congregational leadership at the Council and committee levels; support for local educational and active initiatives; and occasional promotional events, such as worship services and regional workshops.

The scope of this project has already begun with research in the summer of 2017 and will be completed in December of 2018.

See Eco-Reformation page on MNO’s website here