Report on Caring for Creation Consultation

Prepared by Danielle Welliever
Director for Environmental Education and Advocacy

Division for Church in Society

The Caring for Creation Now Consultation was held in Mundelein, Illinois on November 5-7, 2003. Sixty persons representing various synods, congregations and interests within the ELCA attended the consultation. Eleven Churchwide staff members also were present.

Consultation Goals:

• Assess the social statement’s adequacy to meet new and emerging needs.
• Develop strategies for action, networking and communication.
• Report findings of the consultation to the Division for Church in Society and other interested Churchwide offices and units.

The Work of the Consultation:

Most participants agreed that the social statement remains a strong and vigorous document, recognizing the seriousness of the environmental crisis today and its importance as a spiritual and moral issue. Although the Caring for Creation social statement articulated a sense of urgency regarding the environmental crisis, there has been little follow-up.

Participants believed that the implementation of the statement within the various expressions of the ELCA over the last 10 years has been weak, falling far short of this social statement’s commitments. Demand for action and accountability along with a timeline for implementation became the overriding concerns of consultation participants. Participants recognized their own culpability and included a strong sense self-evaluation and ongoing mutual accountability in their concerns.

During the consultation, passion quickly turned to participatory action. Citing the need for more resources, a Caring for Creation liturgy was developed and work begun on a sample synod resolution making environmental concerns a priority issue of the ELCA. Workgroups were formed. Information sharing among a growing network will be accomplished through the Lutheran Earthkeeping Network of the Synods (LENS) listserv and web page hosted on the Web of Creation website as well as through ELCA Division for Church in Society and Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs web and print communications.

A report evaluating the statement was drafted and refined by participants. The report contains a long list of important and priority tasks that are needed to implement the social statement. Priority tasks included resource development, reporting on our work together to synod bishops and to the Theology and Ethics committee of the Conference of Bishops, full environmental audits of church facilities and the promotion of an environmental tithe. Participants asked for a progress report at the end of 2004.

Consultation participants, already active on stewardship of creation issues in their own communities, remain anxious to see the vision and commitments of the social statement fully integrated into the life of congregation, synods, and related agencies and institutions of this church. They are willing to hold the statement and its vision up within their own congregations and synods and work with the Churchwide Organization to make "Caring for Creation Now" a visible movement within the life of this church.

Consultation Process:

The overriding concern in putting together the consultation process was to find a way to recognize and honor participant knowledge, energy and work and let the Spirit direct our time together.

The primary work was accomplished through small and large group discussions. A first draft of the report coming from the consultation was prepared ahead of the meeting based on responses to a questionnaire sent to all participants. Peter Bakken, member of the original drafting committee, lent his time and talent to this initial endeavor and to subsequent revisions of the document throughout the consultation.

Unstructured time was built into the agenda for self-determined and Spirit-led individual and group work and reflection. Resources were shared freely among participants.

Keynote and panel presentations were meant to undergrid the work of those attending the consultation. The keynote given by James Martin-Schramm, Luther College, emphasized a holistic approach to environmental education, advocacy and action in the church, calling attention to the relationship between peace, justice and the integrity of creation. A panel representing the original "Caring for Creation" social statement drafting committee gave a historical perspective on the statement. Inez Torres Davis, Women of the ELCA anti-racism trainer, focused her remarks on environmental justice. Division for Church in Society staff described the advocacy work of the church and finding our public voice. Rev. Gilbert Trimble, a G’wichin tribal elder, chief and Episcopal priest, talked about changes in his Arctic village and among his people. He spoke about his indigenous and Christian understanding of God.