Earth Day: Christians offer hope, take action on creation care

April 23, 2014: As the world observed Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22, the director of the national, ecumenical Green Church program in Canada said Christians have particular gifts to offer the environmental movement, namely hope, love and faith. “I think that Christians everywhere are seeing that the environmental crisis needs an answer, and not only from schools and industries and citizens, it needs it from Christians and the Church, and we have our own answer to give,” said Norman Lévesque. “Everywhere there are environmental values that come from the environmental movement, but the Church will also add hope to this environmental crisis so we can help solve it,” he said and added “It’s not alarmist. We’re going to bring hope. We’re going to bring love for creation ; and finally, with hope and love, there’s also faith. We need to have faith in God that he can give us the tools we need to change.”
Green Church, which began in 2006, includes more than 40 member church communities and operates out of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal. It offers resources to churches and faith communities to care for God’s creation.
The program has three pillars, explained Lévesque: action, awareness and spirituality. It offers tools for churches to take action in the areas of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, ethical eating, water conservation, recycling and waste reduction. It helps churches raise awareness about creation care through education campaigns and tips for church bulletins. It also offers spiritual resources, including prayers, information for catechesis, biblical references, and the stories of saints who can serve as models in creation care.
Lévesque said he has seen an important shift in the Canadian Church regarding creation care in the past five years. In former years, bishops often would simply offer words of encouragement when he would speak about his program.
“Today, we’re actually talking about recognizing this as a ministry. He said “I’m a witness to different bishops who are actually giving pastoral mandates and nominating people to this job. So it’s quite amazing that in the Church we’re actually recognizing this as a ministry. It’s a pastoral care; it’s creation care,” he added.
Other programs similar to Green Church exist worldwide, he said, mentioning Eco-congregations and the European Environmental Network in Europe, and Earth Ministries and Green Faith in the United States.Source: CNS.