Spiritual environmentalism

THERE'S NO LACK of parish get-togethers at Williamsburg United Methodist Church this fall. There's a lunch for the "50-plus" crowd and a state-fair youth jaunt, a church barbecue and a middle school retreat.

And who'd want to miss this month's excursion to the Tidewater Fib re Corp. recycling plant in Chesapeake?

The green movement is percolating into Hampton Roads' faith community, where advocates say environmentalism is a newfound but natural fit with spirituality.

At Williamsburg United Methodist, the recycling field trip is hosted by the church's year-old Green Initiative Committee, which promotes conservation by Christians.

"Part of it is having an awareness of God's creation, awareness of how we, as Christians or people of faith, have to take care of the world," said Carolyn Spencer, a committee member.

Organized environmentalism is still more the exception than the rule in area congregations.

But creation care, Earth stewardship and eco-spirituality are becoming buzzwords, particularly in some Catholic, mainline Protestant and Jewish communities.

"This creation spirituality has been around for a while, but climate change has brought it to the forefront," said Susan Hedge of the Ecological Working Group of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. The group encourages parish environmentalism.

"There's so many Scriptures that talk about the Earth, the Creation of God, and we kind of skipped over that somewhere."

Perhaps no one knows more about Virginia's faith-based green movement than the Rev. Pat Watkins. He directs Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, part of an environmental advocacy group active in about half the states.

Watkins performs energy assessments for churches, suggesting ways they can reduce energy use. He also talks to congregations about how they can "go green" and how environmentalism fits Christian theology.

The latter is sometimes an unfamiliar notion for folk raised to believe that God, in Genesis 1:28, told humanity to "fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion" over all creatures.

Watkins said the passage has been read wrongly as justifying unrestrained exploitation of natural resources. He tells churches that a better interpretation of "dominion" is to care for living things.

"It is not a hard sell, and I'm a little surprised, to be honest with you," he said of his audiences' reaction. "People do say, 'That's not what I heard in Sunday school growing up,' but it makes sense for them."

It also is making sense among some national religious groups, such as the National Association of Evangelicals, which includes dozens of denominations.

"We want our churches to likewise in their community to be faithful witnesses on matters concerning stewardship of the Earth," Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president said last fall.

Pope Benedict XVI has been dubbed the "green pope" for his repeated public warnings about global warming and exploiting natural resources.

"We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us," the pope said last year. "Our Earth is talking to us, and we must listen to it."

Secular environmentalists are eager to have people of faith as allies, said Glen Besa, who directs the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter. Religious leaders are part of a coalition in southwest Virginia fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant, he said.

To stop global warming, he said, "it's going to require a broad coalition of interest groups, and the faith community is certainly an important partner."

But there are plenty of congregations that don't see climate change or eco-stewardship as high priorities.

Among local Southern Baptist churches, "I think most of them feel that it's not something that we need to expend our time and energy - it's not part of our mission," said the Rev. Lynn Hardaway, who called climate change a fad topic in religious circles.

Hardaway, a Newport News pastor who led Central Baptist Church in Norfolk until this summer, said Scripture does call caring for the Earth a responsibility - but a secondary one.

"The mission God calls us to do is reaching people with the gospel," he said.

At the other end of the spectrum is Warwick Memorial United Methodist Church in Newport News. Three years ago it decided that in its new building addition, "we'd be as green as we can," said ministry coordinator Dave Munro.

The church installed regular and compact fluorescent lights and a high-efficiency air conditioner and stocked the kitchen with plates and silverware, eradicating disposable plates and utensils.

"That cuts down the carbon footprint because we're not using paper - we cut our garbage load in half," Munro said.

The church also uses a low-phosphate dish detergent and collects recyclable trash, including the paper, bottles and cans from members' households.

"There's always some folks that say that's not part of church," he said of eco-spirituality. "A preponderance of folks in this church believe part of our stewardship responsibility is helping care for God's creation, regardless of where you sit on global warming."

Other churches that are eco-active have taken similar steps.

At Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal in Norfolk, the year-old Environmental Team has inspired the planting of a butterfly garden, a Lenten talk series on environmental theology and deployed recycling bins. The church also switched its newsletter to e-mail, seeded oysters in a riverbed and is compiling a book of environmental prayers.

At Temple Israel in Norfolk, the synagogue is swapping incandescent bulbs for energy-efficient CFL bulbs and urged its 450 households to do likewise.

Rabbi Michael Panitz said the eco-action harkens to Genesis 2:15, where God creates the Garden of Eden and puts man in the garden "to till it and tend it."

"People are supposed to be God's stewards of the environment," Panitz said.

The Tidewater Sowers of Justice, a Catholic social justice group, has an ecological working group that educates parishes on environmentalism.

Ed Marroni, the group's chairman, said he personally composts kitchen waste, limits water use, recycles and drives a fuel-efficient Saturn.

"I don't use a power mower anymore," he said. "I use a reel push mower."

Other churches with green committees include Church of the Holy Family, St. Nicholas Catholic Church and Emmanuel Episcopal Church, all in Virginia Beach.

In Williamsburg, Spencer's group posted recycling bins in the church and swapped Styrofoam disposable cups for reusable mugs for Sunday coffee hour. It showed the energy conservation film "Kilowatt Ours" and hosted a program on making rainwater barrels to conserve water.

"If we believe God created the world - and that doesn't preclude believing in Darwin or evolution - I think he then created us to use, not abuse," Spencer said. "If we want to live for a while, we better do something."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com Story goes here and goes