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

Volume Two, Number Three
January/February 1993

"THRICE BORN CHRISTIANS"

PASTOR CALLS FOR CONGREGATIONS TO BECOME CREATION COMMUNITIES

Excerpts from a manuscript to be published under the title Creation Communities: Why and How by Alvin Pitcher, Pilgrim Press.

We are living in a new age which might be characterized as the age of the thrice-born Christian. The second birth is the age of justification by faith, of acceptance in faith of our being accepted in spite of our unacceptability, as a child of God, created in the image of God.

The third birth is a birth into acceptance of our connectedness with the rest of the world, human and non-human, at a deep level, even though at the empirical level we act and feel unconnected. The church has the opportunity to respond to the environmental revolution as if to be in the image of God is to be and act as if we were in relation to everybody and everything.

To be "in the spirit" is at one and the same time to be with, for and in communion with the whole creation. One's own faith depths should show in the eyes of the environmentalist. Meditation and prayer are an essential part of the environmental revolution.

There are scores of books and articles which suggest hundreds of things to do and be in order to "save the planet,"or "care for creation," all of which are helpful. I can summarize the meaning of the 157 items listed in the appendix "On Living Toward The Future" in the following ten commandments for caring for the earth.

  1. Thou shalt begin every day by thinking about and praying for and with the universe.
  2. Thou shalt save energy.
  3. Thou shalt recycle
  4. Thou shalt listen to what the scientists are telling us about the air, earth and water.
  5. Thou shalt choose to use less (gasoline, fuel, meat, food, plastics, new paper products, books, magazines, new clothes); give less of materials and more of yourself.
  6. Thou shalt be part of a group committed to caring for the creation.
  7. Thou shalt covenant a part of your budget to projects that help care for the creation.
  8. Thou shalt communicate with your friends and enemies.
  9. Thou shalt expose yourself to the world of nature.
  10. Thou shalt be open to accepting the ecological crisis as a gift.

The Rev. Alvin Pitcher has been part time pastor at University Church (UCC/Disciples of Christ), Chicago, since retiring from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago in 1977. For the last three years the congregation has been gradually extending its activity in response to the environmental crisis.

University Church has had three extended study groups as part of the church school, the beginning of an environmental audit, ecoteam meetings focusing on what can be done in members' households, ecology sermons and worship materials introduced. Three members of the congregation attended the Earth Summit in Rio. Part of the mission is in the context of The Covenantal Residential Community of University Church in which the Pitcher family lives, at 6107 S. Woodlawn Ave. ,Chicago 60637.

For more on forming creation community congregations, call Alvin Pitcher, (312) 643-4141.

The Universe Is a Communion of Subjects, Not a Collection of Objects. Thomas Berry

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