Congregation Forges New Earth Partnership

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

Volume Nine, Number Four
May/June 2000

LOCAL CONGREGATION FORGES NEW EARTH PARTNERSHIP

by Leslie Reindl

At its annual meeting, the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in St. Louis Park (a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis MN) committed to making Care for the Creation central to its life and mission over the next five years.

The small church, located between a busy freeway and a residential development, has a 4-acre property with some woods and a community garden. The church seeks to revitalize the congregation and to build on its assets — work in the community, especially with children, and its property — and to implement a new vision.

"The church has set a new course towards becoming an 'eco-church,' " said its pastor, Rev. Dennis Ormseth, a former seminary professor.

At the center of the vision is a new panentheism — earth as the body of the language of God, as the disclosure of the presence of God — all things being in God. Salvation is to be thought of in the context of the healing of the body.

"This new direction builds on our previous commitment to make a difference in our community," explains Pastor Ormseth. "In partnership with our neighbors, we have developed a community garden on part of our property and we strongly support the city's Children First Initiative. Now we hope to model more comprehensively the kind of environmental stewardship that will sustain a living earth for generations to come."

The church is implementing its new vision immediately with an ecological emphasis in preaching and teaching. Tentative plans include the transformation of the woods into model habitat, and of part of the parking lot into environmentally sound affordable housing.

Realizing that its vision will need much help from outside, in March the church sent out a call for help to the spiritual and ecological community at large. An open consultation in April brought together 25 people, including 18 members of the Reformation congregation and others from several denominations, to begin shaping the New Earth Partnership. The format of the meeting included an opening worship; a visit to the community garden and the woods and reporting back on what people saw, heard, and felt (celebration); breakout groups focused on arenas of activity; and a vegetarian lunch. The consultation concluded with affirmations and prayer. A steering committee will begin to work on the recommended activities.

For more information write Rev. Dennis Ormseth, Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 2544 Highway 100 S., St. Louis Park MN 55416; 612/929-0439.