Preface
The Parish as a Green Zone
by David Rhoads
Where do
we begin the process of developing new attitudes and behavior toward the environment
and our relation to it individually and as a community of faith? It may be
helpful to identify specifically the congregation, school, place of business
or the home as a place to care for the earth and to name that model or plan
for fostering that climate. Some have described such places as Creation Awareness
Centers or as Healing Places. The model referred to in this essay identifies
such a faith community (such as a congregation or theological school)
as a Green Zone. Such a name is intended to make the concerns and commitment
of faith community and its' leaders publicly recognizable to the wider community.
Such a model, it is hoped, will foster creativity in thinking about how to
deal with the human impact on the environment. It is also intended to encourage
comprehensive thinking about the environment in relation to every area of
community life, so that these faith communities and individuals in them can
work toward a holistic approach to living in harmony and justice with the
environment. The purpose of this essay is to motivate such creative and integrated
thinking and action.
What is
a Green Zone? Very simply, a Green Zone is a geographical area in which lifestyle
and activities promote a healthy environment and where the people are committed
to the healing of creation. Activities in a Green Zone have a fourfold emphasis:
1) Transformation
through worship and education.
-
Introduce
concerns for creation into every area of communal life.
-
Incorporate
concerns for creation into worship including confession, forgiveness, thanksgiving,
intercession, music, preaching.
-
Create
rituals for tree plantings, litanies over our despoiling of the environment,
petitions for endangered species, blessing of the animals and trees, and
so on.
-
Make
banners and decorate worship with reminders of our love for creation. Teach
care of the earth in classes for adults and children.
-
Provide
forums and workshops on the problems of the environment and what can be
done. Bring in speakers from local organizations.
-
Provide
information about local recycling centers and disposal sites.
-
Expose
attitudes which lead to damage of the environment, and teach theologies
and biblical resources which foster healing.
-
Introduce
people to ethical issues they will be facing in the struggles over scarce
resources, job losses, and environmental damage.
-
Help
people to love the natural environment, and develop a spirituality rooted
in creation.
-
Connect
people to nature with retreats, nature walks, outings, awareness of nature
around the church.
-
Inform
people about local, national and world issues on the environment.
-
Provide
symbols which enable people to identify with issues of creation awareness.
-
Provide
books and periodicals in the library. Promote them in church bulletins and
newsletters.
2) Make
the geographical area of the parish into a "zone" which is safe for the environment.
Do a comprehensive
"environmental inventory" for a) everything which comes into the building,
b) the use of everything in the building, and c) everything which goes out
of the building.
a) Everything
which comes in:
-
Bring
fewer resources onto the property and into the building: less energy, less
water, less paper.
-
Avoid
the purchase of products with packaging that cannot be recycled.
-
Bring
in recycled stationary, bulletin paper, towels, toilet paper. Bring in products
which will be safely used and safely disposed.
-
Consider
mowing by hand, using no pesticides, prohibiting smoking, using cloth napkins
(no paper cups, plates, table cloths).
-
Provide
as much of your own resources as possible: plant gardens and fruit trees,
use water from drainage, plant trees near buildings for shade, get wind
mills, solar energy.
"Our noble
oblig-ation as humans is to learn to inter-face with nature in ways
that enhance nature, rather than to make deserts out of forests."
--
C. Dean Freudenberger
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b) The
use of everything:
-
Use
all products more efficiently. Purchase furnaces and appliances which are
the most energy efficient.
-
Get
energy audits, and provide insulation (weather stripping, caulking, storm
windows, shutters thermal curtains, tinted glass, trees), improve energy
efficiency, and regulate thermostats.
-
Use
less water by means of toilet dams, tap shutoffs, faucets, the use of drainage
water, and no lawn watering.
-
Avoid
all unnecessary use of paper. Use office paper completely and efficiently.
-
Use
only safe products and use them up.
-
Use
plants inside which purify the air.
c) Everything
which goes out:
- Recycle as close to
100 percent of the waste as possible: paper, bulletins, containers, cans,
aluminum, plastic, furniture, appliances, batteries.
- Take all toxic waste
to proper disposal sites.
- Study the waste baskets
and garbage cans periodically in order to see where you can recycle better
or avoid products which produce such waste.
- Compost food, grass
clippings, leaves, and other organic waste. Do not let warm air escape from
the building.
3) Promote
a personal lifestyle among members which fosters a healthy environment.
- Encourage people to
treat their houses, businesses, industries, and other public arenas as Green
Zones.
- Provide the tools for
people to do an "environmental inventory" of their homes and places of work.
- Provide a "covenant
with creation" in which people commit themselves to certain actions on behalf
of the environment.
- Pledge and renew the
covenant annually at a special worship service.
- Encourage people to
consider ecological concerns in diet, transportation, gift-giving, and so
on.
- Provide books which
list things people can do for the environment and work through the list together.
- Provide interest or
support groups to foster change and develop habits.
4) Political
Advocacy.
- Promote a commitment
to action on behalf of the environment in the local, state, national and global
arenas.
- Become informed about
local, national and global issues. Make your views known to governmental representatives
and corporate officers.
- Seek to be advocates
and reconcilers in controversy, pursuing creative and forward looking solutions.
- Provide support groups
for people affected by environmental issues.
- Engage in educational
programs in your community. Organize grassroots environmental projects.
- Cooperate with other
churches and with environmental groups.
- Involve groups in the
church in action programs in church and community (e.g. youth or adults weatherizing
homes on behalf of the poor and elderly).
- Conduct a letter-writing
campaign. Write "letters to the editor."
- Encourage people to
join environmental organizations, and participate in local and regional environmental
committees.
- Give recognition to
people who care for creation in outstanding ways.
Be visionary. The key to
a Green Zone is to think comprehensively and creatively. View every external
and internal obstacle as an opportunity to learn how we can move toward a new
world. Think what your faith community might be like fifty years from now, a
place which is an ideal place to care for the earth. Out of such a vision of
possibilities, begin step by step to fulfill the hopes that will make your space
a place where all God's creation is loved and celebrated. Insofar as we are
able to do that, the kingdom is now.
David Rhoads,
M.Div., Ph.D., is Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology
in Chicago. He is the faculty advisor for the LSTC Green Zone and initiated
the production of this manual.
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