Creation Awareness Centers

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Two, Number Two
November/December 1992

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS CALL CHURCHES TO BE CREATION AWARENESS CENTERS

"Churches should develop as creation-awareness centres." This is one of the recommendations of a worldwide Forum on Evangelical Christianity and the Environment held in August 1992 at Au Sable Institute near Mancelona, Michigan. Sponsors of the event were Au Sable Institute and the Unit on Ethics and Society of the World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission, headquartered in Seoul, Korea.

Sixty people from 8 countries and 5 continents, with a wide variety of expertise, academic disciplines and professions, gathered for a week to address biblical and Christian responses to environmental issues.

Co-convener and Institute Director, Calvin DeWitt, reviewed the threats to creation's integrity (alteration of Earth's energy exchange; erosion, salinization and desertification of land; water pollution; deforestation; species extinction; waste generation with global toxification; and human and cultural degradation).

Four theologians from United Kingdom, Kenya, USA and India spelled out the biblical basis for care and keeping of creation. Lessons for environmental stewardship were drawn from the practices of Christians worldwide. For example, one outcome of Christian mission work is often increased child survival, but without compensating activity to relieve subsequent pressure on the environment, thus undermining sustainability.

The final report affirms the concept of sustainable development "as that which seeks to provide an environment that promotes a life of dignity and well being compatible with the continuation and integrity of supporting ecosystems."

The Forum also related biblical teaching on care of creation to action in the church in society. "Humans are called to a special task of caring for creation in a shepherdly manner, since they reflect God's image in a unique way."

"The Christian community must dare to proclaim the full truth about the environmental crisis in the face of powerful persons, pressures and institutions which profit from concealing the truth. The Christian community needs to develop practical policy approaches to the environment, based on biblical principles and sound analysis."

"Christians need to form and join environmental organizations that apply Christian principles to environmental problems. They also have an important witness as participants in secular organizations."

A major outcome of this meeting of evangelical leaders was the formation of an International Evangelical Environmental Network for which Wayan Mastra (Bali, Indonesia) was appointed Chair and Chris Sugden (UK) and Calvin DeWitt (USA) were appointed the Secretariat.

The final report of the Forum was scheduled for publication in Transformation in October 1992. The papers of the Forum are scheduled for publication in the April 1993 issue of Evangelical Review of Theology.

For more information contact Calvin B. DeWitt, Director, or Peter Bakken, Outreach Coordinator, Au Sable Institute, 731 State St., Madison WI 53703, (608) 255-0950.