Posted on 02/01/2009 7:29:05 AM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative
The National Council of Churches is partnering with the Committee on Outdoor Ministries to call on faith-based camps and conference centers in the United States to sign onto a pact agreeing to treat the environment with respect.
Participating camps and conference centers are asked to make decisions about how to use their land while keeping in mind the “sacred nature” of God’s creation; to conserve energy and water; to recycle waste; to purchase environmentally sustainable products; and to continue to educate those who use the camps and conference centers about the preciousness of nature they are experiencing.
“Camp and conference centers have a unique role to play in the protection of, and education about, God’s Creation,” said Jordan Blevins, assistant director of the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches. “This covenant gives them the opportunity to put words and commitments to the values many of them have been living out for generations, and to be recognized for and supported in doing so.”
The Committee on Outdoor Ministries has long made creation care one of its top priorities. It believes that outdoor, natural settings provide “space and time to encounter God, others, and creation,” according to its theological mission statement.
Jeff Puhlmann-Becker, chair of the Committee on Outdoor Ministries said the covenant was developed with the hope that a wide variety of participants would sign on as individuals and groups.
“For example, a specific camp board might adopt and sign this covenant. At another camp, a small group of campers and their leaders might spend the week exploring care for God's creation and choose, as a small group, to sign this covenant,” said Puhlmann-Becker.
At the annual gathering of the Committee on Outdoor Ministries this week in Live Oak, Fla., its members unanimously approved of the covenant and signed onto it to show their support.
On the Web: www.nccecojustice.org/campcovenant.html
Green Camp and Conference Center Convenant
God created the Earth and all that is in it, and declared it good. God’s creation is marked by wondrous complexity, interdependence, and beauty. Human beings are called to the task of stewardship – to care for the Earth as created by God, and to maintain this blessing for future generations to enjoy. Furthermore, the protection of Creation is an issue of justice, as its degradation of the Earth often disproportionately affects the “least of these”.
Places of wilderness and solitude are places where we often experience the sacredness of Creation most clearly, and are places where God meets us, sometimes most powerfully. Whether as the site of Moses’ call, the Israelites’ freedom and consecration, the inspiration of prophets, the testing of Jesus, or our own experiences today, the solitude of being with God in the midst of Creation often reacquaints us with our interdependence with that Creation. Specifically, we commit ourselves to the following:
- When making decisions about how to use the lands we have been blessed with, consider the sacred nature of land and wilderness as a part of God’s Creation
- To conserve energy in as many ways as possible, recognizing that our use of energy is a justice issue, as the impacts of energy’s overuse falls on those living in poverty first, and relates to our call to care for all of God's children, especially the most vulnerable, and to protect and restore God's creation.
- To practice conservation in our use of water, recognizing that good water management plays a vital role in realizing the importance of water for all communities around God’s Earth.
- To recycle our waste in as many ways as possible, seeking to achieve sustainability. Recycling is a tangible action that reminds us of the interdependence of the world, and seeks to sustain the ongoing capacity of natural and social system to thrive together.
- To purchase environmentally sustainable products (products made seeking the sustainability defined above), as recognition that how we live our lives and make purchasing decisions have profound environmental and justice impacts on God's creation.
- To continue to educate those who use our camp and conference centers to the sacred nature of the Creation they are experiencing, and to teach them how to lead lives in recognition of this sacredness.
We recognize that as a camp and conference center of the faith community, we have a unique role and responsibility to play in protecting God’s creation and maintaining places where people of faith come to experience God.
A simpler and much more viable version of this has been taught for years and years by - wait for it - the BOY SCOUTS.
Perhaps these church groups had better get back to basics...like God and morality.
What a pantload ... essentially an I pledge allegiance to Mother Earth and to the socialists who love her most of all.
It’s not like these camps are running coal mine operations on them now.
They certainly treat the camps and conference centers better than certain people treated the mall during 0's abomination inauguration two weeks ago anyway.
Yes, because Democrats always expect others to do things for them and won't lift a finger to help themselves.
And Christ threw the money-changers out of the temple. This “movement” is no different, just follow the money.
Oops, I read that and thought they were going to talk about abortion. Silly me. Priorities, you know.
This strikes me as an attempt of a struggling bureaucracy to bolster its position by publishing a politically correct environmental manifesto.
Get used to it and forget seeing large ‘christian’ churces and para-church organizations taking biblical stands in public.
We have been living in a post christian world for decades.
This has the same defect as many of those United Nations agreements and treaties, namely that the terms are vague and subject to interpretation and, thus, will be used as a club over which to bludgeon those signers who don’t interpret the terms the same as the powers-that-be.
Make that “club WITH which to bludgeon”
.
The National Council of Churches has been dominated by Communists since the early 1950s
• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Alliance of Baptists
• American Baptist Churches in the USA
• Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
• Church of the Brethren
• The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America
• The Episcopal Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Friends United Meeting
• Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
• Hungarian Reformed Church in America
• International Council of Community Churches
• Korean Presbyterian Church in America
• Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
• Mar Thoma Church
• Moravian Church in America Northern Province and Southern Province
• National Baptist Convention of America
• National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
• National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
• Orthodox Church in America
• Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA
• Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
• Polish National Catholic Church of America
• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
• Reformed Church in America
• Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada
• The Swedenborgian Church
• Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch
• Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America
• United Church of Christ
• The United Methodist Church
Here they are, folks. Get out as fast as you can.
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