Ecology and Church of England

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

Volume Six, Number One
November/December 1996

ECOLOGY AND THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND

by Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs, from a report of a 1996 visit

Based on my observations at the 1992 Earth Summit, my expectation for the British was that they would be doing a better job than we in the USA. Upon visiting, I realized that the future of the environment in England was not as secure as I had thought.

I was invited to show a program on caring for God's creation for the Market Weighton Methodist Circuit where my wife, Emma, was the exchange pastor. It was the first ecological program the circuit had had in recent memory. I talked about the Environmental Ministries in Reseda, the National Council of Churches, and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. I showed the video Keeping the Earth.

A problem the British Methodist Conference faces is that they don't have someone related to their conference board of social responsibility (similar to my role in California) to encourage local congregations to use such programs and get involved in eco-justice/stewardship study, worship and action.

I was fortunate to meet with the past coordinator of the ecumenical British environmental network, Christian Ecology Link (CEL), which produced a 1994 packet of materials titled Steps Toward Sustainability, and publishes the quarterly Green Christians. We discovered that we faced similar challenges in helping congregations discover the Biblical mandate to tend, serve and protect the Creator's world.

The victory that was thought won by the Greens in Europe in the early 1990s has languished. There is an immediate opportunity for communities of faith to give needed leadership in this ethical and public policy vacuum. For Methodist, Anglican and other churches this will mean networking more intentionally with the CEL network. It will be important to give ecological concerns an equal priority with maintenance issues, evangelism, church and social welfare, and administration. It will mean using regularly the religious and secular environmental resources that have been published in Europe in the last seven years. It will mean strategizing with local, regional and national environmental groups and appropriate government agencies, on shared environmental concerns.

My prayer is that this will happen in England, Europe, and throughout the rest of the world. Creation waits in anxious anticipation for the coming to maturity of God's human children.

For more, write Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs, Director of Environmental Ministries, California-Pacific United Methodist Conference, 7528 Garden Grove Ave., Reseda CA 91335; 818/344-7870 (email petereco@aol.com).