Pastoral Letter
from the Episcopal Bishops in New England, 2003
In thanksgiving
for the gift of God's creation and with an urgent concern for
the health and stewardship of the world, we your bishops issue
this Pastoral Letter on the Environment. We know that the environmental
crisis is a matter of great concern to many Episcopalians and
we know that many of you have acted more fully and more faithfully
than we ourselves have. We confess our past complacency, ignorance
and neglect. We regret Christian teachings that claim or imply
that human beings have divine sanction to destroy God's creation.
We pledge our prayers, our time, our leadership and our energies
to the work that needs to be done. We encourage all members
of the Episcopal Church in New England to see in the promises
of the Baptismal Covenant the call to serve Christ in all creation.
Scripture
and tradition remind us that the whole earth is filled with
the glory of God. Here in our beloved New England we perceive
that glory in wild forests and open fields, in clear lakes and
rocky seashores, in mountains, dunes, and rolling hills.
With Martin Luther, we know that "God writes the Gospel, not
in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and the flowers and the
clouds and stars." With Thomas Aquinas, we affirm that "Revelation
comes in two volumes - the Bible and nature." The world is God's
creation, and God delights in it ("God saw everything that [God]
had made, and indeed, it was very good," Genesis 1:31; "The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows [God's]
handiwork," Psalm 19:1). The land and the rivers, the air and
the sea belong to God, not to human beings ("The earth is the
Lord's and all that is in it," Psalm 24:1). We are part
of the created order, not separate from it, and our first calling
by God is to be the caretakers of creation (Genesis 2:4b-8,
15). Reckless destruction of nature is a sign of estrangement
from God. ("There is . . . no knowledge of God in the land .
. . Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even
the fish of the sea are perishing," Hosea 4:1b, 3; "Hurt not
the earth, neither the sea nor the trees," Revelation 7:3).
God's
earth and all God's creatures now face perilous and potentially
cataclysmic changes as a direct result of human activities.
New Englanders are acutely aware of the environmental challenges
we face in our own small corner of the world, from the collapse
of fisheries to the loss of farmlands and wetlands, from smog
to acid rain. Airborne mercury poisoning, suburban sprawl, the
loss of wilderness, overuse of pesticides and other toxins,
extinction of species - these are just a few of the environmental
hazards with which we must contend.
One of
the most daunting challenges we face is global climate change.
Many scientists agree that if we burn fossil fuels at expected
rates, global warming caused by human activities could raise
worldwide average temperatures between 3 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit
(5 and 20 degrees Celsius) in this century. In New England,
climate change may cause flooding in coastal areas, reduce the
quality of our region's fresh water, imperil agriculture, and
increase the outbreaks of infectious disease. Within this century,
New England may lose its maple, birch, and beech trees. We face
the loss of our spectacular fall colors and the end of fall-foliage
tourism, as well as the destruction of our region's maple sugar
industry.1
Global
warming is but one stark example of the troubled relationship
between humanity and the natural world. Environmental issues
are not just scientific, political, or economic issues, but
ones that are profoundly moral and spiritual, as well. As Christians
we cannot remain silent. Christianity offers an imperiled world
the conviction that God's creation is good, and that God in
Christ has redeemed not only the individual human soul, but
also the whole of creation. In Christ, "all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to
reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:19-20).
Creation is thus made new (Revelation 21:5).
Just as
God's salvation encompasses all creation, so too does Jesus
call us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Who is our neighbor?
When Jesus was asked that question, he responded with the story
of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). Today, the natural
world is under assault, forests are being stripped and oceans
plundered, natural resources are being exhausted and entire
species killed. Today, the world is being stripped, beaten,
and left half dead. Is it not possible to recognize all creation
as our "neighbor"?
The poor,
the marginalized, and the least powerful of our human neighbors
are those who suffer most from illness and pollution caused
by environmental degradation. Generators, incinerators, and
waste disposal facilities are concentrated in impoverished neighborhoods;
children in our inner cities suffer alarming rates of asthma;
overemphasis on the use of private vehicles deprives the poor
of transportation. Exploitation of the poor is closely linked
to exploitation of the earth, and our quest for social justice
and economic sustainability must rest on a foundation of ecological
stability. As baptized Christians, we are clearly called to
care for creation, loving our neighbors as ourselves. Through
prayer and action to protect the earth, we acknowledge the ongoing
redemption of all creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19a),
and we minister to Christ himself, who particularly identifies
with the outcast and suffering (Matthew 25:35-36).
Lest we
experience despair, lest we feel the hopeless conviction that
it is too late to change anything, too late to turn this around,
we must root ourselves in the deepest convictions of our faith.
We put our trust in a God who loves every inch of creation and
whose covenant with Creation can never be broken ("I will .
. . remember the everlasting covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is on the earth," Genesis
9:16). We share in Christ's crucifixion, letting ourselves feel
and mourn the wounds of Creation. We share in Christ's resurrection,
bearing witness to the Christ who bursts out of the tomb, who
proclaims that life, not death, has the last word, and who gives
us power to roll away the stone. We receive the Holy Spirit,
source of all truth, who sends forth faithful stewards of God's
creation. We nourish ourselves at the Eucharistic table, where
Christ gives himself to us in the natural elements of bread
and wine, and restores our connections not only with God and
one another, but also with the whole web of creation.
As brothers
and sisters in Christ, we commit ourselves and we urge every
Episcopalian in every parish and diocese throughout the Province
of New England:
- To act together to honor the goodness
and sacredness of God's creation;
- To acknowledge the urgency of the
planetary crisis in which we now find ourselves;
- To pray and take action to restore
a right relationship between humankind and creation;
- To
lift up prayers in personal and public worship for environmental
justice, human rights, and sustainable development;
- To repent of greed and waste, and
to seek simplicity of life;
- To
commit ourselves to energy conservation and the use of clean,
renewable sources of energy;
- To reduce, reuse, and recycle, and
as far as possible to buy products from recycled materials;
- To
realize that, through participation in community, public policy,
and business decision-making, we have corporate as well as
individual opportunities to practice environmental stewardship
and justice;
- To seek to understand and uproot
the political, social, and economic causes of environmental
abuse.
In order
to support these commitments, we call for a
Provincial Convocation on the Environment in 2003.
Who will believe the church's declaration
that "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) if we ourselves do
not? By committing ourselves to join with others in protecting
the integrity of God's creation, we are living out the promises
of our baptism and participating in God's mission to restore
all people and all creation to unity with God and each other
in Christ.
Faithfully in the name of Christ and
all creation,
The Episcopal Bishops of New England:
The Right Reverend Andrew D. Smith, Bishop
of Connecticut
The Right Reverend James E. Curry, Bishop Suffragan of Connecticut
The Right Reverend Wilfrido Ramos-Orench, Bishop Suffragan of
Connecticut
The Right Reverend Chilton R. Knudsen, Bishop of Maine
The Right Reverend M. Thomas Shaw, III, SSJE, Bishop of Massachusetts
The Right Reverend Roy F. Cederholm, Jr., Bishop Suffragan of
Massachusetts
The Right Reverend Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts
The Right Reverend Douglas E. Theuner, Bishop of New Hampshire
The Right Reverend Geralyn Wolf, Bishop of Rhode Island
The Right Reverend Thomas C. Ely, Bishop of Vermont
The Right Reverend Gordon P. Scruton, Bishop of Western Massachusetts
Sent to the Episcopal Churches of
Province One on the Feast of the Presentation of Christ, 2003
_______________________
1 - For an
examination of the effects of global warming in New England,
see New England Regional Assessment Group. 2001. Preparing for
Climate Change: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability
and Change. New England Regional Overview, U.S. Global Change
Research Program, 96 pp., University
of New Hampshire.
Download
MS Word version of Episcopal Bishops in New England Issue
First Pastoral Letter on the Environment • Read online
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MS Word version of To Serve Christ in All Creation – A
Pastoral Letter from the Episcopal Bishops of New England
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