Fall 2000

From the Executive Director
Praxis of the Kingdom
Fishing in Living Waters by Kara Unger
Partnership in Creation Care: A Conversation with Paul Gorman
Book Reviews by Jim Ball

From the Executive Director

Dear Friends,

You've heard the stereotypes before. "Environmentalists" are elitist tree-huggers only concerned about forest preservation and pandas, and those involved in the peace movement are unrealistic dreamers who simply want the absence of conflict without addressing the underlying causes. This is an ugly side of a tendency in modern culture to break down life into manageable bits, to assign people and problems to certain categories. Besides fostering stereotypes, this tendency can blind us to the interrelationships between the problems we are concerned about and the causes we work for. To counteract this, we give lip service to the idea that we should strive for "holism" or take an "interdisciplinary" approach. Let's face it, environmentalists and peacemakers don't get together very often and for the most part don't think about how their concerns connect. The theme of this issue, "creation-care IS reconciliation," and the stories recounted in the following pages, bucks this atomizing trend. It does so because Scripture tells Christians that through Jesus Christ God was pleased "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Col. 1:20, NIV). Caring for creation is an act of biblical reconciliation because environmental problems hurt people as well as the rest of creation. This hurt is part of the sin that separates us from God, who loves all of His creation. When we stop the hurting and start the healing, we become ministers of Christ's reconciliation of all of creation. As the Tangier Island story recounted in the fine articles by Susan Drake Emmerich and Kara Unger reminds us, someone is always downstream or downwind from environmental problems. Pollution promotes conflict. Nonsustainable societal practices lead to a situation termed "environmental scarcity" - something that will probably lead to thousands of "low-intensity conflicts" (a euphemism for small wars) around the world in the coming years. The mainstream press won't cover them, but God will know, and Christ will be there with those who suffer.The Tangier watermen came into conflict with secular environmentalists in part because pollution and soil erosion from the region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay has contributed to the decline of the blue crab - a species upon which their livelihood and therefore their unique culture are based. How many of us have consumed products from this region produced by nonsustainable practices or contributed to the pollution entering the Bay? You can't see it, but my hand is raised. How about you? We're all downstream and downwind from people God loves and Christ died to reconcile us to. As Susan Drake Emmerich points out, creation-care immerses us in the Shalom of Christ, the Prince of Peace.Creation-care reconciles us to others and to the rest of creation, but most importantly it reconciles us to God. I thank God for the example of the Tangier islanders, for they remind us that creation-care IS reconciliation.

Praxis of the Kingdom

Biblically-based Environmental Stewardship as a Ministry of Reconciliation

Mounting economic pressures and further environmental degradation in the US and around the world are creating a conducive environment for conflicts between environmentalists and local communities, particularly those that are resource-dependent. Some environmental conflicts have erupted in violence across the county as in the case between timber communities and environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest. However, I would contend that environmental conflicts are often not just centered on the clash over the use of resources but over the differences in ways of knowing, learning and communicating which differs by culture and world view of the stakeholders in the conflict.

The Kingdom of God, Shalom and the Call to a Ministry of Reconciliation

What role, if any, does the Christian have in helping to reconcile these conflicts? To answer that question, Christians need to have a clear understanding of God's kingdom since it is essential to a proper conception of the mission of God's people, the church. All things that are within the sphere of God's sovereignty are part of the Kingdom of God. The environment, economics, conflict resolution, politics and the arts, among others, are all kingdom topics. The kingdom of God involves reconciliation in every sphere of human existence; indeed, it includes the reconciliation of all of God's creation. God's plan is to "unite," "reconcile," or "bring together under one head" all things in Jesus Christ, as Paul repeatedly says in Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20, and 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ as Reconciler, reconciles all of creation to himself, and has committed to the church the ministry of reconciliation.

Therefore, Kingdom Christians deeply desire peace, justice and righteousness at every level of society because the circumference of the kingdom includes "all things in heaven and on earth" (Eph. 1:10) and the welfare of every person and everything God has made. The Christian's participation in Christ's ministry of reconciliation of all of creation is to be understood in the light of the Hebrew scripture promises of shalom. The root meaning of shalom is "to be whole, sound, safe." The fundamental idea is totality and integrity. Anything that contributes to this wholeness of a person or a community makes for shalom. Anything that stands in the way, such as stubbornness of heart, disrupts shalom.

A small community of Christian women and fishermen on a remote island in the Chesapeake Bay learned in a greater way the fullness of what it means to be in right relationship to God through Jesus Christ - that it includes being in right relationship to one's neighbor and to the rest of God's creation. With shalom like this, wholeness and integrity are developed in the individual, and this makes for shalom in the community.

Tangier Island, A Christian Watermen Community in Conflict with Environmentalists

The Chesapeake Bay is covered by wetlands, the habitat for the blue crab and other invertebrates and fish. It was once called the crown jewel of the world's estuaries. Unfortunately, the Bay's fragile ecosystems are being lost due to pollution from the major cities north and south of the Bay and from farm runoff (hog, chicken etc.) at an alarming rate. As a result, the blue crab, and those who depend on it for their living, are struggling to survive. [See Kara Unger's article on an initiative to help upstream farmers understand these impacts, below]

In 1997, I went to live and work among a remote Christian watermen community in the Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay called Tangier Island. ("Waterman" is an old English term referring to people who harvested in more than one fishery"crab, oyster and fish.) I originally went to Tangier to do research to fulfil my Ph.D. dissertation. I had no idea when I began the research that it would later become a ministry of reconciliation.

Tangier is an island only 3 1/2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide and is predominantly marsh. What is unique about Tangier is that its economy is almost entirely centered around crabbing, and, at one time, oystering. The church is the center of community life today just as it was 200 years ago. As a Tangier resident, Carlene Shores, says, "Nothing happens on Tangier unless it is rooted and grounded in the church." Of the 700 people in the community, 84 percent consider themselves conservative, evangelical Christians and attend either the United Methodist Church or the New Testament Church. The history and worldview of the Christian Tangiermen is integrally related to the history and theology of American Methodism dating back to the early 1800's when Joshua Thomas missionized Tangier using the boat called "The Methodist."

Conflict over fisheries has been a part of Tangier history as well as the history of all watermen in the Chesapeake Bay dating back to the oyster wars in the mid- to late- 1800's . The attitude of the oystermen in 1870's was "Get it today! Hell with tamar (tomorrow)! Leave it till tamar, somebody else'll get it."

In more recent times, fishery conflicts have been over oyster and blue-crab regulations set by state boards of fisheries and influenced by proposals from environmental groups such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).CBF is one of the largest regional environmental groups in the United States. In 1995, conflict erupted on Smith and Tangier Islands over a blue crab regulation that caused fear among the watermen and a misunderstanding that the environmentalists were out to "get rid of them." This led to signs against CBF being placed along the channels for tourists to see and the burning of a shed on Smith Island owned by CBF.

I went to Tangier to better understand the causes of the conflict between CBF and the Tangier watermen, and to understand the forces for change in the community. I spent sometimes 14 hours a day on watermen's boats, out in crab shanties and working with women in the crab processing houses to better understand people's perspectives on the conflict with CBF, on their economic future, and on their faith. It was clear, after only a couple of interviews, that for most Tangiermen, their faith is the center of their life and community, and that the church is the main institutional force for change in the community. Also not surprising was the fact that the Tangier women, as most women in fishing and other resource-dependent communities, are the primary agents for change. I discovered that most Christian Tangiermen had a concept of the need to care for the creation within their faith worldview that expressed itself in the term "caretaker."

My research revealed two primary underlying causes for the conflict between CBF and the Tangier watermen: 1) the watermen's fear of their loss of livelihood and way of life; anyone perceived to foster their loss of livelihood would be considered the enemy; and 2) the watermen's misperceptions and suspicion of the motivations of outsiders - especially environmentalists and scientists (viewed as one group). The misperceptions are primarily due to two factors. The first is that CBF did not understand nor recognize the importance of the Tangiermen's faith-based worldview. Many environmental professionals within CBF, influenced heavily by naturalistic assumptions, know the world from a predominantly scientific and academic perspective and so never considered that a Christian's faith might be a framework for understanding the world and a motivating force to care for it. Second, misperceptions developed because CBF lacked an effective communication channel to the majority of Tangiermen. Some of the watermen themselves, as well as the women and other people in the community that were also stakeholders in the fishery, did not receive information about CBF's positions.

Tangiermen, like people in most conservative, rural communities, particularly faith-based communities, are often unable (or, in some cases unwilling) to relate the environmental ethic of "outsiders" to their way of life. It is perceived as an "outside" ethic and, in the case of the Tangiermen, inconsistent with their faith. However, many of these communities, like Tangier, need to create a sustainable economic future but are hindered if they believe it will require accepting an outsider's way of thinking and doing things.

Creating a Bridge over Troubled Waters

It occurred to me that if the watermen of Tangier could more fully understand the biblical principles underlying their own ethic of caring for creation and be motivated by their faith to live out the biblical principles of stewardship in and around their island community, it could provide a bridge of understanding and even support for the overall CBF goal to be good stewards of the Bay. While not always agreeing on the best approach, I thought the relationship between the two groups could be strengthened if the Tangiermen better understood that CBF's motivations were based on a ethic of environmental stewardship whose goals were consistent with biblical stewardship.

Likewise, it seemed that if CBF better understood and respected the Tangiermen's faith, more fully took into consideration the economic needs of the community before making fishery proposals, and established a better communication avenue with the Tangiermen to provide for their input on the fishery proposals before they were made, that they would have a better chance of having a good working relationship with the Tangiermen.

In 1998, after presenting my findings about the underlying causes of the conflict to the Mayor of Tangier, Principal of the Tangier School, and the pastors and key elders of the churches, I was invited back to help them develop a biblically-based stewardship effort. This was to help them cope with the economic and environmental changes affecting them and to reflect biblical principles of stewardship in the community. It came to be known as "The Tangier Watermen's Stewardship Initiative."

Some of the key biblical stewardship principles that provided the basis for the community-based Stewardship Initiative were: caretaking (godly stewarding of Creation), maintaining the fruitfulness of the species, practicing contentment, allowing for Sabbath rest for the Creation, loving thy neighbor, and obeying the law of God and, therefore, obeying civil laws " including fishery laws. These principles were used in the context of a "Transformative Approach" to conflict resolution"an approach that encourages the transformation of people within the conflict rather than attempting to merely solve the problem. The approach forges commonly held values into a shared vision towards which to collectively build.

Tangier Watermen's Stewardship Initiative

The Initiative's leadership and participants were all from the Tangier Island community and included most of the key leaders. Three community groups--caring for creation, fishery stewardship and economic development/preserving the watermen culture"were formed and produced goals, objectives and strategies for the community. These group reports were consolidated into an environmental and economic stewardship vision called "The Tangier Watermen's Stewardship 2020 Vision" that was presented at a conference developed on the island for members of the community and for "outsiders"-- environmentalists, scientists and government officials.

People learned a great deal about how to apply the biblical principles of stewardship to everyday life through these community meetings. During the first meeting of the Fishery group, Christians and non-Christians discussed the problem they faced with credibility before the state board of fisheries and other governing authorities. They agreed that this had to do with the perception of most watermen being "outlaws" on the water and they agreed that they had to accept some responsibility for that perception. They also came to realize that they were creating problems for the crabs and for their neighbors down the Bay by changing their boat oil into the Bay, and dumping all their boat trash (bait boxes, oil cans etc.) overboard. The watermen discussed the idea of a covenant to help them be more accountable for their actions out on the water.

Watermen's Stewardship Covenant

During the Stewardship community meetings, I presented a message at a joint service of both churches on biblical environmental stewardship and loving thy neighbor. The day before the service, high tides brought loads of trash up on the island and people recognized that "their sins had washed ashore." I discovered an important icon in almost every Tangier watermen's boat. It was a picture of Jesus standing behind a young boat captain pointing the way for him during a storm. The picture is related to the old hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me." Using this picture in the message,I said, "Isn't it inconsistent as Christians to be praying on the one hand, "...thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' while taking illegal crabs, and dumping trash overboard?Maybe all of us who have this picture in our boats ought to put a blind fold on Jesus." I also asked the question whether Jesus would hate environmentalists.

At that service, 58 watermen publicly committed to the Watermen's Stewardship Covenant in which they committed to obeying all the laws as a result of obeying God's law and to being better stewards of God's creation.Some people's behavior and attitudes positively changed toward the Creation, toward CBF people, and toward economic change needed for a sustainable future. Watermen even in their 70's and 80's, men that are not prone to change, within 24 hours of the service and taking the Covenant, were placing trash bags on their boats and, rather than dumping everything overboard, were bringing their trash onto the island in bags. Watermen gave emotional testimonies in church of how convicted they were after throwing aluminum cans overboard, or taking undersized crabs, as a result of the Covenant they had taken.

Some watermen apologized to their fellow Tangiermen who work for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for their animosity toward them over the years. James Eskridge, a waterman, said, "The men who have taken the covenant are permanently changed. We can't go back. People have seen the light."

Behavior change was brought about by a transforming understanding of the scriptures and conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit. There is no more permanent behavior change than that brought about the power of the Holy Spirit. Government officials, scientists and environmentalists, who have worked with Tangier on other issues and have experienced difficulty in instituting change of any sort, have been stunned by the dramatic change in the people.

Opposition to the Initiative

There is opposition to the Stewardship Initiative by some of the Tangier islanders themselves. The opposition from family members and friends has been very difficult but has caused the Tangiermen involved in the Stewardship Initiative to think through what they really believed the scriptures to say on caring for creation and loving thy neighbor. As a result, those involved in the Initiative hold very strong convictions about what it means to love God, to love your neighbor, and care for God's creation. The Tangiermen who are a part of the Stewardship Initiative are an amazing group of people who have "taken a stand for Christ" in the midst of some great opposition in their own home town.

Some are opposed to the Initiative because it is religious based (although the Initiative has always been open to all people and there were seven non-Christians who took the Covenant). Others are opposed to it because they don't feel that one should need to make a covenant to obey the laws. Still others are in opposition because they don't feel they can make a living without breaking the laws, although all the older watermen, including elders and pastors, refute that claim. Finally, others simply don't fully understand what the Stewardship Initiative is about and are suspicious that it could even be bad for the community. According to the Stewardship Initiative leadership, more than half of the islanders are in favor of the Stewardship Initiative and a small percentage of people are adamantly opposed to the effort.

FAIITH, Hope and Women

A key goal of the Initiative was to empower people so that they could gain a sense of control over their environmental, economic and social future based on their faith.Susan Parks, Director of the Stewardship Initiative, said "more people are feeling in control of their future. There is less feeling that there is no hope and that we will have to move off the island in the future." During the Stewardship Initiative, it became apparent that there was a need to formally organize into a group that would work with government officials, environmentalists and scientists to promote fair fishery regulations and fishery stewardship. The women were the ones who organized, under the direction of Carlene Shores, F.A.I.I.T.H. - "Families Actively Involved in Improving Tangier's Heritage." FAIITH created a new channel to receive information on fishery regulations and proposals, and for communication between the Tangiermen, CBF, and state officials. This helped to clear up misperceptions and to promote the watermen's perspective on proposals for fishery regulations. The women of the community have taken an active interest in civic governance as a result, and have been actively involved in letter and phone campaigns to promote their positions on fishery regulations. It has simply been amazing to see the fruit of their efforts.

The women of the community also wanted to, as Stella Brown says, "do our part" and so they took a Women's Stewardship Covenant . The Covenant addressed:

being better stewards of resources by being aware of extreme consumerism;
not giving into every desire of their children;
being less demanding on their husbands for material things; and
obeying the civil laws.

Environmentalists are "Enlightened" about Faith

The people at CBF, who have been involved in or observing the Initiative, have had a sort of "revelation" themselves. When interviewed, CBF Vice President Don Baugh said he had worked for 15 years to instill an environmental ethic on Tangier Island and had been unsuccessful. He then said that he "finally realized that CBF wasn't going to move forward until they recognized that this Christian community valued things in a Christian way and that they needed to work within their value system." In a key meeting between CBF staff and FAIITH leadership, a CBF official apologized for proposing the crab sanctuary corridor regulation that would have economically hurt the Tangier and Smith Islanders. They said they really didn't think it would have hurt the islanders to any great extent. They agreed that they needed to better communicate their ideas for fishery regulations with the Tangiermen and to obtain their viewpoints before making proposals.

While not always agreeing with each other, some of the Tangier watermen and women are now working with CBF to restore the oyster reefs around Tangier and to expand and diversify the local economy by developing oyster aquaculture. As a result of the "revelation" about caring for creation, their neighbors and their economic future, watermen who would never consider oyster farming a year ago, are now trying out the new aquaculture technology at their crab shanties.

The Stewardship Initiative is also working to diversify the income base for women who have very little employment opportunities on the island. One victory was the development of a seafood restaurant on the island by six of the women who are a part of the Stewardship initiative. Women also took art classes, organized by the Stewardship Initiative, to help women learn to make crafts to sell to tourists.

A non-profit organization called the Tangier Watermen's Stewardship for the Chesapeake (TaSC) has been formed to implement the goals of the 2020 Stewardship Vision and to spread the faith-based stewardship and reconciliation message to watermen and farming communities around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The hope is that this effort could provide the principles and a process that could be applied to other Christian-based and local resource-dependent communities. As Ed Parks, V.P. of the TaSC Board says, "The only way to get things done is by people agreeing and working things out. The only way is to put God ahead of us all."

Summary

The Stewardship Initiative on Tangier Island was an attempt to bring healing and wholeness and a renewed sense of harmony"shalom"between people (Tangiermen and CBF) and between people and God's creation. The effort revealed that teaching environmental stewardship using biblical principles provided an acceptable manner for the watermen community to understand more fully the biblical mandate to care for creation. The biblical teaching also motivated people to apply biblical stewardship principles in their personal and work life. Once the Tangiermen realized that they shared a common stewardship ethic with CBF, and they had a clear understanding that CBF was apologetic for past fishery proposals that may have negatively impacted the watermen, there was less fear of CBF's mission, a better understanding of their motivations for wanting to "Save the Bay" (CBF's slogan), and a new belief that a working relationship with CBF could actually help the Tangiermen's cause of saving their watermen heritage. With CBF better understanding the Tangiermen's worldview, particularly their biblical view of stewardship, it opened a channel of communication with the newly developed FAIITH group and later, the TaSC group. A bridge for communication had been built leading eventually to a working relationship on projects. Through the FAIITH and TaSC organizations, women were empowered and watermen not "in the loop" were enabled to better participate and have a voice in thegovernance processes which directly affects their livelihoods. Both organizations also provided a channel for Tangiermen to obtain information on fishery regulations and positions being taken by environmental and other groups.

Because of the Stewardship Initiative, local environmentalists, policymakers and scientists came to a greater understanding of the faith worldview of the Tangier watermen community. They recognized the need to understand and respect any community's worldview when teaching about the need to care about the environment, when communicating scientific facts, and when making proposals for regulations that impact their way of life. The Stewardship Initiative also helped these groups understand the importance of assisting communities in generating alternative forms of income so that the community does not view caring for creation as "jobs versus environment." Last, it highlighted that it is essential to have communication channels that effectively facilitate a two-way flow of information between groups andlocal communities.

This community-based Stewardship process should not be seen as a model to be applied without alteration in other communities. The biblical foundation, however, could be the basis for the development of stewardship initiatives in other communities (farming, timber, African American communities in urban areas) where faith and the church are the center of individual and community life.

The Evangelical Environmental Declaration states, "The presence of the kingdom of God is marked not only by renewed fellowship with God, but also by renewed harmony and justice between people, and by renewed harmony and justice between people and the rest of the created world." It is quite possible that justice and harmony will be spread throughout communities in environmental conflict because of the witness of Christ's power to change the lives of the Tangiermen and the CBF staff amidst their conflict. The Tangiermen's strength of conviction about the biblical mandate to care for Creation, and their willingness to be obedient to the Word of God, despite opposition from family and friends, is honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ and is reflective of kingdom Christians committed to shalom! As such, these brave Tangier islanders are participating in Christ's ministry of reconciliation "which he established through his blood, shed on the cross" (Col. 1:20).

For further information or to purchase the 11 minute documentary video for education on the Tangier Stewardship effort email: Susan Parks (ats_parks@yahoo.com) or write:

Susan Parks
TaSC
P.O. Box 242
Tangier, VA 23440

Fishing in Living Waters

Kara Unger

John 4:13: "Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (NIV).

The story continues

Two similar groups -- watermen and farmers -- have recently come to know one another as they have begun to explore a biblical approach to creation-care. Both make their living off the land and water around them. One raises cows and corn in the rural hills of south-central Pennsylvania, the other catches fish and crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. Two communities connected by water - the stream flowing through these Pennsylvania hills is Sideling Hill Creek, which flows into the Potomac River, which in turn flows into the Chesapeake Bay. On July 14-16 of this year, a group of ten members of the Bethel Christian Church from the Sideling Hill Creek watershed (the area of land that drains into Sideling Hill Creek) went to Tangier Island at the invitation of the TaSC group (Tangier Watermen Stewardship for the Chesapeake group -see Susan Drake Emmerich's article in this issue) to meet with them and learn about their way of life. We live upstream from the TaSC watermen and their families, and the water we send downstream ultimately ends up in their "backyards."

Our group first met the islanders last March when they came up to our community to share their Biblical principles for their stewardship activities. The TaSC group showed a video about their efforts video and shared with our community firsthand how they have committed to honor the Lord and obey his wishes by being good stewards of the resources God has given them. It got us thinking "about the Chesapeake Bay, about the water we send downstream, and about God's mandate, embraced by the TaSC group, to care for God's creation. These two groups - both working people making their living off the land and water around them - learned more about each other and shared their responses to the difficulties they face day to day. And in so doing, they developed a mutual care for each other, expressed as a desire to do the right thing for God's creation.

At the invitation of the TaSC group, we went down to Tangier Island to learn more about the islanders' way of life, to see and experience the Chesapeake Bay, and to share fellowship with other Christian believers. It was an incredible experience.

One of the novelties of Tangier Island is that there are only 15 cars on an island of 600 people.Most people get around by bicycle, electric golf cart, or on foot. This makes for a slower pace on the island, one that is more conducive to meeting and greeting your neighbor than one finds in most other towns these days. As one of our group said, "the thing that I love the most that we have in common is the fact that we all know most every one in our communities, we all say hello in the streets and watch out for each others kids, and do things for each other." The Sideling Hill Creek watershed and Tangier Island share a sense of community where neighbors know each other and people work with their hands to make a living. These commonalities strengthen the ties between the two communities.

An integral part of our trip was learning about the science and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. We spent the morning on an educational boat with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). Other than the ferry ride over, this was the first boat ride for some in our group. We put a scrape into the water, a fishing device used that drags behind the boat and "scrapes" along the Bay floor to pick up crabs and fish on and near the bottom. This scrape was specially designed not to tear up the aquatic grass beds growing on the bottom. These beds are critically important for the life cycle of the crabs, oysters, and fishes.Aquatic grass beds provide a safe haven for crabs to hide in when they are molting "shedding their smaller shell and growing a new one. There is a short period after each molt when the crab is totally soft and defenseless.If the soft crab could not hide in the grass beds, other fish would quickly eat it. These "soft crabs" are a prized catch for watermen because they sell as a delicacy and fetch a premium price. But if scraping is not done right, the grasses are torn up and next year's crabs will have no safe place to go to molt. So the fishermen depend on the health of the grass beds for next year's catch.

We learned important lessons about how the water we send downstream from the hills of Pennsylvania affects the Chesapeake Bay and the crab fishery. The largest environmental threat to the water quality and health of the grass beds in the Bay is cloudy water. Cloudy water prevents sunlight from reaching the grass beds. And, like most other plants, aquatic vegetation needs sunlight to grow.Without sunlight the grasses die, and the crabs have fewer places to go to safely molt. The grass beds used to grow in water up to 15 feet deep. Now, because Bay water is cloudy, aquatic vegetation can only grow in water six feet deep. This diminishes the environmental health of the Bay, adversely affects the crab populations, and therefore hurts the livelihood of the watermen.

What makes cloudy water? If water sent downstream from Pennsylvania and other places in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (including Maryland, New York, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington D.C.) contains soils or sediment, the water in the Bay gets cloudy and turbid. Also, nutrients from overfertilized lawns and farm fields end up in the Bay, where resultant algal blooms further cloudy the water. As our group was on the Bay, on waters that we sent downstream to the very place we were floating, we understood that we were literally downstream, in our neighbors' backyard, floating on water that we send them and that they are dependent on for their livelihood. We also understood that these creatures that God made, and the people who depended on them, were affected by our actions upstream.

By better understanding the Bay and experiencing it firsthand, we better appreciated and understood how what we do impacts our neighbor downstream. Although traditional environmental education is very important in imparting a scientific understanding, it is not sufficient to impart a "why care" or ethical foundation for creation care work. Our group discovered a reason to care because we came to know and understand the watermen and we wanted to help them. We came to care about creation because we came to know and care for our neighbors downstream. This care is now our motivation for action.

After a lunch of fresh soft shell crabs and crab cakes, our group went out on the water with two of the TaSC watermen to learn more about fishing and crabbing. For those in our group that farmed, the "blood and guts" of the workingman's experience was most interesting. Seeing hand built crab shacks, holding a hand welded crab pot, made the fishing experience real for landowners who fix tractors and plow soil.The hands-on nature of the work experience in both communities strengthened the ties between the two groups. We had fun watching the crabs scurry in the holding pens in the crab shacks, seeing the eels in the eel pots, and learning that the soft shell crabs and eels would end up in New York City the next day, where they would be served as a delicacy in a fine restaurant. Cows and vegetables from our fields in Pennsylvania end up in restaurants all along the east coast as well.

After providing us a wonderful covered dish supper at the Tangier Combined School, the TaSC members shared their Biblical principles for caring for creation. The most important part of their work was that each person had made a personal commitment in the form of a covenant to the Lord to answer to Him for their actions. Remembering their covenant strengthened them in times of testing. This personal commitment to be obedient to God's laws is the "why care" that the watermen shared with our group.

The connection that was made was interpersonal - and it wouldn't have happened without the initiative and commitment of the TaSC group. By meeting our neighbors downstream and sharing a small part of their lives, we more fully understood that to love our neighbor is to act to do what is right for them. Caring for creation became an expression of love and concern for those downstream from us, not just a good feeling about nature. For those of us in the Sideling Hill Creek watershed, the question is whether we will literally share clean living water or dirty water with our neighbors downstream. Our group came back committed to making sure our lands do not add sediments or nutrients to the stream waters which end up in the Chesapeake Bay. We also came back wanting to share this story with our neighbors here. Initial discussions are underway to develop a video to show other landowners how to care for the water by acting rightly on the land, and why this is important to our Christian brothers and sisters on Tangier Island. And we want to keep connected to the islanders by continuing the visits, sharing, and prayer between the two communities.

This is a story for all of us. Even if we don't all live in the Bay watershed, we all have neighbors downstream, whether it be downstream in a literal sense or downstream in the sense that our environmental choices impact future generations. Our choices reflect our love for our neighbors, current and future. If we believe that "through Him all things are created and in Him all things hold together" (Col. 1: 16-17), making right environmental choices becomes an expression of our love for neighbor and God. Love is a decision to always do what is right for the other person. We see this in God's love for us. He sent His only son to die for us and be a ransom for the world, including our neighbors downstream as well as all of creation (John 3:16). He acted. And so when we love we are to act to do what is right for the beloved, as God does.If we love our neighbor, and if our neighbor downstream includes the unborn (can a timeless God value future generations any less than our own?), then this story shows that we must act.Christ is the living water who flows through generations (Jn. 4:13). Future generations are our neighbors downstream. We are connected through the living waters of Christ and we must act on that knowledge.

The love of Christ we express to our neighbors by polluting less, conserving resources, not overfertilizing our lawns, driving less, and not littering becomes "living water" splashed on the next generation as well as our present neighbors downstream. We all need to act "to show our love for our neighbors "by leaving a legacy of a clean environment and resources that our neighbors downstream need to live. We can all express our love for our neighbor and the Creator by making conscious environmental choices that reflect this love and bring about reconciliation. Each of us, by choosing to express our love for our neighbor through action, becomes an actor in the reconciliation that Christ brings to all of creation (Col 1:15-20). And by so doing, we live out the Lord's prayer and help bring about God's kingdom on earth by sending clean living water downstream.

Let us all follow the example of our brothers and sisters in Sideling Hill Creek watershed and Tangier Island, who are connected by the Bay waters but more importantly are connected through the living waters of Christ. Let us all commit to caring for our neighbor and being part of God's plan for reconciliation by not sending pollution to our neighbors downstream.

Kara Unger works for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, lives in rural south-central Pennsylvania on the Sideling Hill Creek watershed, and attends Bethel Christian Church.

Partnership in Creation Care: A Conversation with Paul Gorman

Paul Gorman is Executive Director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment ('Partnership'), an alliance of American faith communities served by the Coalition on Environment and Jewish life, the Evangelical Environmental Network, the National Council of Churches of Christ, and the U.S. Catholic Conference. A graduate of Yale and Oxford, Mr. Gorman has served as a staff aide to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, taught at City University of New York, produced a public radio broadcast for 29 years, and was Vice President for Community Affairs at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from 1985-1991, when he helped establish the Partnership. He is a member of the Board of the World Resources Institute and received the Heinz Award for Environment in l999.

Creation Care: What has proved most important about the structure and work of the NRPE as it has evolved over the past decade?

Paul Gorman: Its religious and moral foundations, rooted in scripture and orthodox theology, and offering a clear biblical perspective amidst a secular environmentalism shaped largely by science, activism, and a vague, naturalist spirituality. It has been essential and joyous to do this work through an alliance inviting each independent faith community to work from its distinctive tradition. Ultimately, I'd say the greatest contribution has been a steady commitment to put God first -- which can get lost in social policy and action, but I believe to be truly secure here.

CC: How have your own beliefs and background shaped your environmental work and your efforts with the Partnership?

PG: Well, my environmentalism is far more shaped by faith than by nature. I grew up in cities, didn't spend a whole lot of time in wetlands; never farmed; don't know how to fish. Not a conventional "environmentalist". Where nature most moves me is, say, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters." I really do think --- perhaps without knowing it when I was young -- that creation has played the role that it was intended to: bringing me closer to my Creator.

As for my background and the Partnership, I am the son of a Catholic father and Jewish mother. As for many born of "mixed marriages", there were conflicts to be worked through. As a child, in some instinctive way, I appreciated the truths of both traditions. Passover and Easter for me were observances, miraculous, not social occasions, and they had something to do with each other. So there's a sense in which my background has prepared me here to be a faithful servant to diverse traditions.

CC: Can we ask about your own faith perspective now?

PG: I am a Christian. I came to baptism later in life, on Pentecost, and with a mature recognition, I think, that this was Christ's work in me. I find a home in John 14-15, in Christ's example of service and affirmation of the Holy Spirit.

CC: What can Judeo-Christian teaching most offer environmentalism?

PG: Clearly the knowledge of a loving God, not distant but deeply engaged in creation. God's covenant: "between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations (Gen: 9: 12)." That means our generation, in response to signs of the times.There's no more powerful teaching for what we narrowly call "environmentalism" than, "... and God saw that is was good. (Gen 1:18)." This establishes moral value in creation. Judeo-Christian teaching also offers to environmentalism an appropriate place for the human person, uniquely created in the image of God. All these revealed truths I hold as independent of any historical condition.But they're powerfully responsive to the current planetary situation in which a universal concern for creation is seeking religious vision, moral perspective, and spiritual nourishment.

CC: Do you see environmentalists increasingly embracing biblical teachings?

PG: Not nearly as I'd wish, and for some deep reasons.For example, I believe God is present with but also distinct from creation, which arises ex nihilo by divine action. But there's a growing spirituality in the culture with a strong pull toward pantheism or primitivism.The desire to see divinity present in nature is so strong that the distinction between Creator and creation is denied. I think it's our responsibility to make this distinction again and again. But once this perspective is challenged, there remains the task of speaking to it skillfully and creatively, as responsible custodians of God's word.We are addressing deep human yearnings.We have a calling here. The ultimate mission of creation care is to share the knowledge of God and God's love. We must pray and think hard about how best to offer this most precious gift to those beyond the perimeter of our biblical faith.

CC: You were quoted somewhere as saying that "environmental questions go to the heart of what religious life must mean", and "(this) brings into question the most fundamental tenets and teachings of our traditions." Are there elements of historic Judeo-Christian teaching that should be abandoned?

PG: No, none. It's clearly a misquote. Obviously, I meant something like 'brings into focus' not calls into doubt or question.I'd be renouncing my faith. But in the sense they invite us to a fresh understanding of creation as God's handicraft and our role, uniquely in God's image, to be stewards of God's creation, then environmental issues are indeed pointing to the heart of religious life, and we ought to rejoice at the opportunity.

CC: In that light, the Partnership has recently been accused, in a letter by four religious scholars circulating the "Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship" of seeking to "supplant Judeo-Christian teaching." What about this?

PG: Perhaps conviction and partisanship momentarily got the better of civility and accuracy; that can happen to any of us. I believe the charge has been withdrawn. In the first place, the Partnership circulates no theological or doctrinal materials of its own, in its name. It offers the teachings and resources of its member groups in the richness of each's distinctive traditions. No group is bound by another's offerings. It's a stretch to suggest supplanting of doctrine by the U.S. Catholic bishops, or Jewish seminary faculty, or pastors of the historic Black churches, or nearly 500 signatories of an Evangelical Environmental Declaration. But there will be sufficient compassion and civility to place differences in the larger context of shared commitment to protecting God's creation. The greater truth here is the virtually universal recognition in the American faith community that the environmental crisis is real, urgent, and requires a religious and moral response.

CC: Could you identify some of the concrete programs and accomplishments in this work?

PG: Some efforts have been undertaken by national offices and agencies. To help reduce the incidence of childhood illnesses such as asthma, cancer, birth defects and learning disabilities caused by environmental influences, a "Catholic Campaign for Children and a Safe Environment (CASE) has been established by Catholic Charities USA, the National Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Health Association, National Catholic Education Association and the U.S. Catholic Conference's Secretariat of Pro-Life activities. To mitigate climate change and air pollution, the National Council of Churches of Christ mailed educational packets to almost 100,000 congregations explaining how energy conservation may best be undertaken.Our Jewish partners have widely distributed educational materials integrating creation care themes into observance of holy days: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Tu B'Shvat. Creation Care magazine itself regularly testifies to the work of evangelical Christians.

Other efforts are being enacted regionally and locally. The Catholic bishops of the Pacific Northwest are preparing a pastoral letter on the Columbia River. First Iconium Baptist Church of Atlanta has helped protect its community from sewage contamination. The Hamburg Presbyterian Church of Hamburg, N.Y., secured "Critical Environmental Area" designation from New York state for the nearby Eighteen-Mile Creek renowned for its fossils. Temple Beth El in East Amherst, N.Y., has organized testimony in support of pesticide registry. The Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M. is addressing the interaction of poverty, racism and environmental degradation along the Rio Grande corridor.

It is by such works that the faith community can demonstrate faithfulness, set an example, and be judged.

CC: What do you think are the major challenges facing the Partnership and other creation-care ministries?

PG: That's a very deep question. In many ways, human effort has created unprecedented well-being for God' children and people have sought to do that as faithful stewards of God's creation. But it is difficult to look at clear evidence of affliction of God's creation by human hands and not feel the weight of error and ignorance. A theological challenge is to understand human place and purpose in what we are learning about the greater web of life. A pastoral challenge is to help point a vague, naturalist spirituality toward the knowledge of God. A moral challenge is to lift up a vision of the common good of creation, inspired by God's covenant, and to encourage transformation of behavior toward its stewardship. A challenge to prayer is repentance and humility. The basic challenge is sin. And, for me at least, the strength to meet these challenges lies in Christian hope.

Book Reviews

Jim Ball

Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God's Handiwork by Calvin B. DeWitt. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998.

I have to admit that I'm an unabashed Cal DeWitt fan, and contained within this slender volume from Baker Books is vintage DeWitt.The book is the publication of the 1996 Abraham Kuyper lecture series, including DeWitt's keynote address along with responses from Richard Baer, Thomas Derr, and Vernon Ehlers. (I'll be honest and also say that I don't find the responses from Baer or Derr on balance particularly helpful.) DeWitt's essay, grounded in Scripture, gets at the heart of the problem as well as to the heart of a Christian approach to creation-care. The problem from DeWitt's perspective is that human selfishness and greed, when allowed free reign in a market economy, ignores the larger economy of the created order itself.Should Christians care? DeWitt then asks several crucial questions, "Is Jesus Christ Lord of creation?" and "Whom are we following when we follow Jesus Christ?". His answers lead him to deny that Christian stewardship could ever be "dominion as domination," but must rather be a dominion as service.

Is God a Vegetarian?: Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights by Richard Alan Young. Chicago: Open Court, 1999.

Around 1995 on EEN's listserv (EENet) Richard Young and I had a dialogue on the subject of this book. At that time he was in the process of writing what came to be Is God a Vegetarian?, and it's a pleasure to see it published - especially since he provides recipes at the end of each chapter! This book is a must-read for anyone interested in its subject matter. Let me disclose that I'm not a vegetarian, although I try to eat low on the food chain so as to "eat lightly" on the earth. Thus, while I found Young's arguments engaging, in the end I remain an omnivore. A major task Young sets before himself is a daunting one: to make a case for Christian vegetarianism while conducting a serious dialogue with Scripture. Young is quite honest in admitting that there are many passages that seem to run counter to vegetarianism being a Christian requirement; e.g., the fact that Jesus was not a vegetarian even after his resurrection (Lk. 24:40-43), and that Gen. 9:3 permits the killing of animals for food (what Young describes as a "concession"). Unfortunately, his arguments as to why we should essentially ignore these passages are abstract theoretical contortions that I find troublesome.

Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective edited by Michael Schut. Denver: Living the Good News, 1999.

Editor Michael Schut has done all of us a wonderful favor by bringing together the articles and resources contained in this book, including his own 50 page study guide at the end to help facilitate study by a small group. The title sets the right tone and lets us know that it's ok to open this book and begin to discover the joy that comes from living out the Christian values of simplicity and compassion. The title doesn't begin with some preconceived destination that to many would sound scary and too challenging, i.e., "Simple Living."Instead, it begins wherever you are as says, "open me up and find support and advice on how to start simplifying your life," i.e., "Simpler Living." But as the rest of the title suggests, the book helps the reader connect the joy of simplifying one's life to the joy found in knowing that such a life is also a compassionate life. It helps the reader see the connections between overconsumption and poverty and the degradation of creation. (FYI, Mike Schut is available to lead a workshop on simpler living.Contact him at Earth Ministry, 206-632-2426.)

Faith on Fire: 15 Lessons to Help Teenagers Change the World by Debbie Gowensmith and Helen Turnbull

Over a decade ago when I was a Minister of Christian Education the best resources I found for youth ministry were from Group Publishing. It's heartening to know that the quality of Group's resources has not changed. The first five lessons in the book (pp. 9-46) are devoted to creation-care. Tailor-made for the busy youth leader, each lesson is biblically grounded and filled with helpful facts, quotes, discussion questions, and activities.