EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Three, Number Five May/June 1994 CALL TO ACTION: SAVE LANDMARK OLD GROWTH FOREST ECOSYSTEM An update on the Belt Woods story "Development Threatens Ark of Biodiversity" Earthkeeping News, March/April 1994. For more information contact Dan Boone, Coalition to Save Belt Woods, PO Box 1023, Bowie MD 20715; phone or fax (301)464-4312. "We believe creation is an icon of God, a window into the nature of God. We believe, therefore, that our misuse of creation is a sacrilege, for it defaces God's revelation. . . . Terrible moral consequences flow if the life web is not together. I believe that caring for the environment is literally caring for the revelation of God. Spoiling the environment is spoiling the opportunity that our children will have to encounter their God. It pulls the Earth's rug from under them. . . . Spirituality is environmental. We need to look at the icons of God, the beauty of creation, and look at how we have begun to spoil the image and the vision of God in creation." — The Rt. Rev. Mark Dyer, Episcopal Bishop of Bethlehem, PA, excerpts from "Care for Environment, the Revelation of God," Episcopal Life, Dec. 1993 In spite of efforts by environmentalists to save the rich songbird habitat and virgin forest that the tree loving Seton Belt willed for care and stewardship to St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Upper Marlboro MD, the Diocese of Washington persists in its decision to sell 515 acres of Belt's home farm for the development of 650 units of standard subdivison housing. This will destroy one third of the mature forest on the land, including half of the forest interior which songbirds and many other species need for habitat. The fundamental ecological understanding that fragmentation of ecosystems ultimately leads to their collapse is not evident in Diocesan communications. On the contrary, the church's decision seems to be informed by the utilitarian logic that the sale (anticipated $15 million ) of "raw land", invested at market rate, will provide a comfortable endowment and revenue stream to fund the Diocesan budget for years to come. At an Earth Day concert at the Washington National Cathedral, musician Paul Winter offered the Diocese an alternative. He appealed to the church to set aside development in favor of creating a Seton Belt memorial forest for children and songbirds. He urged the Diocese to seek other sources of revenue, possibly through benefit concerts and sale of birdsongs recorded in Belt Woods, an ecosystem which sustains the nation's highest density of nesting songbirds. Earthkeeping News joins national and regional environmental organizations in seeking funds to buy the Belt farm woods, to preserve this Icon of God on behalf of future generations. Donations to support the on-going efforts to protect the Belt Woods may be sent to the Western Shore Conservancy, 2808 Church Road, Bowie MD 20721, (301) 249-3006. Readers may also write to the Presiding Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Edmund L. Browning, 815 Second Ave., New York NY 10017, requesting the national church to hear the prophetic voices of the environmentalists and stop the sale of the irreplaceable forest for suburban housing. Home     Table of Contents