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.