3/19 CCC: April Earth Month & other dates

April  Earth Month and other dates

4/28-5/5 64th annual Soil and Water Stewardship Week and Sunday 2019 theme is "Life in the Soil: Dig Deeper", sponsored by the National Association of Conservation Districts.  Secular and religious education materials available (grades K-8 booklets and activity guides, church leader guide and liturgy, etc.).  Also see the spring issue of YES magazine cover story "Beautiful Dirt" (nine articles) and the book Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, by David R. Montgomery.

4/26 National Arbor Day celebrated annually on the last Friday of April.  And, for your mental environment, google "think like a tree": grow roots, branch out, soak up the sun, weather storms, be graceful in the wind, etc. 

4/22 Earth Day national day of service. The theme lifted up by Creation Justice Ministries (Justice for God's Planet and God's People, a project of the Division of Homeland Ministries of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), for 2019 is "Next Generation Rising" with an emphasis for children and youth to help protect, restore, and more rightly share God's creation.  Included resources are a Bible study, sermon starter, liturgical and action materials. Also see reflections on the youth generation's Juliana vs. U.S. lawsuit at #eachgeneration.

Related sites: Global Climate Strike; Fridays for the Future; Youth for Climate; Greta Thunberg. 

Note that the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, founded in 1970, will occur next year, 2020.

4/20 BP oil rig explodes in Gulf of Mexico, 2010

4/3 Student Conservation Association founder Liz Putnam's birthday

3/31 Cesar Chavez Day (farm workers and health issues)

3/30 Turn Off Your Lights for Earth Hour, Saturday 8:30 p.m., sponsored by World Wildlife Foundation.

3/28 40th anniversary of partial meltdown of PA Three Mile Island nuclear plant, 1979

3/24 30th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska

3/22 World Water Day

3/15 International Day for a Climate Strike (organized by youth)

3/7 World Health Day

3/3 World Wildlife Day

2/27 International Polar Bear Day

2/26 World Spay Day

2/4 World Cancer Day

Note: This blog by Michael Ochs began here eight years ago, March 2011, and is adopted from his Creation Corner Column, appearing since 1997 in the print and on-line monthly ecumenical newsletter of the United Churches of Lycoming County, Williamsport PA.

2/19 CCC: Winter Reading Suggestions

Creation Corner Column, February 2019:  Winter Reading Suggestions

"With hearts and minds uplifted, We plead, O Lord to see

The day of earth's redemption, That sets your people free!"

(last verse, Hymn 25, "Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers" Lutheran Book of Worship)

The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution.  Henry Gee.

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings.  Gayle Boss.

American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.

Ancient Christian Ecopoetics: Cosmologies, Saints, Things.  Virginia Burrus.

Atlas of the World, 25th edition.  Oxford University Press.

A Barrel of Monkeys: A Compendium of Collective Nouns for Animals.  Samuel Fanous, compiler.

Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children's Literature.  Liam Heneghan.

Beautiful Beasts: A Collection of Creatures Past and Present.  Camilla de la Bedoyere (for readers 6 to 10).

Behold the Earth: A Film by David Conover.

Bizarre Botany: An A-Z Adventure Through the Plant Kingdom.  Christina Harrison and Lauren Gardiner.

The Book of Seeds: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World.  Paul Smith, ed.

Bringing The Outside In.  Mary McKenna Siddals (for readers up to 7).

The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript.  Am. Museum of Natural History.

Butterflies of the World.  Adrian Hoskins, F.R.E.S. 

Cao Jun: Hymns to Nature.  John Sallis, ed.  (Chinese Art).

Carbon Ideologies, Volume 1: No Immediate Danger.  William T. Vollmann.

Carbon Ideologies, Volume 2: No Good Alternative.  William T. Vollmann.

Caring for Creation: The Evangelical's Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment.  Paul Douglas and Mitch Hescox. 

Championing Science: Communicating Your Ideas to Decision Makers.  Roger D. Aines & Amy L. Aines.

Climate: A New Story.  Charles Eisenstein.

A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for a Faith-Based Decision.  Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley.

Climate Change in a Nutshell: The Gathering Storm.  James Hansen.  Known as the Nutshell document, it helps form the basis of the "Our Children's Trust" climate case, Juliana v. the United States.

Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change.  Jim Antal.  Foreword by Bill McKibben.

Coming of Age at the End of Nature: A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet.  Julie Dunlap and Susan A. Cohen, editors. 

A Conspiracy of Ravens: A Compendium of Collective Nouns for Birds.  Samuel Fanous, compiler.

Coral Whisperers: Scientists on the Brink.  Irus Braverman.

Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene. Linda Russo & Marthe Reed, editors.

Deep Thinkers: Inside the Minds of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises.  Janet Mann, ed.

Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime.  Bruno Latour.

The Earth: From Myths to Knowledge.  Hubert Krivine.

EcoDharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis.  David R. Loy.

Ecology, Ethics, and Interdependence: The Dalai Lama in Conversation with Leading Thinkers on Climate Change.  Edited by John Dunne and Daniel Goleman.

An Ecology of Happiness.  Eric Lambin (re: nature prescription for psychological well-being).

The Empire of the Eagle: An Illustrated Natural History.  Mike Unwin and David Tipling.

The End of the End of the Earth: Essays.  Jonathan Franzen. 

The Environment: A History of the Idea.  Paul Warde, Libby Robin, & Sverker Sorlin.

The Essential Plant-Based Pantry.  Maggie Green (re: vegan recipes).

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life.  George Monbiot.

A Field Guide To Your Own Backyard. John Hanson Mitchell.

Fixing Your City: Creative Thriving Neighborhoods and Adapting to a Changing World.  George Crandall.

Flowering Plants: A Pictorial Guide to the World's Flora.  V.H. Heywood and others, editors.

Forces of Nature.  Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen.

Freedom Farmers:  Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement.  Monica M. White.

The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water.  Gary E. Machlis and Jonathan B. Jarvis.

Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech.  Jamie Susskind.

The Genius of Birds.  Jennifer Ackerman.

The Global Economy, As You've Never Seen It (99 Infographics). Thomas Ramge, Jan Schwochow, et al.

Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology.  Adrienne Mayor.

Honeybee Hotel.  The Waldorf Astoria's Rooftop Garden and the Heart of NYC.  Leslie Day.

Hope on Earth: A Conversation. Paul R. Ehrlich and Michael Charles Tobias.

Human Universe.  Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen.

Introducing Evolution: A Graphic Guide.  Dylan Evans.

Know That What You Eat You Are.  Ellen Rosenbush & Giulia Melucci, editors.

Loren Eisely:  Collected Essays on Evolution, Nature, and the Cosmos.  William Cronon, editor.

The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums.  Christopher Kemp.

The Lost Words: a Spell Book.  Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris (re: nature words deleted from the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary).

Nature Is The Worst: 500 Reasons You'll Never Want To Go Outside Again.  E. Reid Ross ("black humor").

Nature's Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age. Mary Christina Wood. (Note: She argues for an "atmospheric trust", that government must protect the resources necessary for human survival. She addresses that and the Juliana v. United States lawsuit in an interview with her in the February 2019 issue of The Sun, "Before It's Too Late: Mary Christina Wood on Avoiding Climate Disaster", by Mary DeMocker).

Ocean Creatures Pocket Pops: A Three-Dimensional Expanding Pocket Guide.  Sarah Young (for children).

On the Future: Prospects for Humanity.  Martin Rees.

One of Ten Billion Earths: How We Learn About Our Planet's Past and Future from Distant Exoplanets.  Karel Schrijver. 

Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century.  Paddy Woodworth.

The Paper Zoo: 500 Years of Animals in Art.  Charlotte Sleigh.

Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat.  Barbara J. King.

Planet of Microbes: The Perils and Potential of Earth's Essential Life Forms.  Ted Anton.

The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment: How the United Nations Built Spaceship Earth.  Perrin Selcer.

Preaching As Resistance: Voices of Hope, Justice, and Solidarity.  Phil Snider, editor (ecology concerns included).

Pug: And Other Animal Poems.  Valerie Worth (for readers up to 7).

This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent.  Daegan Miller.

Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How To Speak Up.  Kathy Khang.

The Ravenmaster: My Life With the Ravens at the Tower of London.  Christopher Skaife.

The Sea Around Us.  Rachel Carson.  New edition of the 1952 National Book Award. 

Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering: What Philosophy Can Tell Us about the Hardest Mystery of All.  Scott Samuelson (re: "the groaning of creation").

Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields.  Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Steve Rubin.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief.  Lewis Wolpert.

Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth.  Richard Conniff.

Star Struck: Seeing the Creator in The Wonders of Our Cosmos.  D. Bradstreet & S/ Rabeu/

Ten Species That Changed Our World.  Alice Roberts.

Things That Are: Essays.  Amy Leach (nature writing).

Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.  Marcia Bjornerud.

Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands.  Zoltan Grossman.  Foreword by Winona LaDuke. 

Vast Expanses: A History of the Oceans.  Helen M. Rozwadowski.

We're Doomed. Now What?  Essays on War and Climate Change.  Roy Scranton.

Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success.  Andrew Balmford.

The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse: How to Design and Build a Net-Zero Energy Greenhouse.  Lindsey Schiller with Marc Plinke.

Compact Disc

Hymnody of Earth. A Ceremony of Songs composed and arranged by Malcolm Dalglish with inspiration and lyrics from Wendell Berry, with American Boy Choir, hammer dulcimer and percussion.

DVD

Unfractured: A Documentary on Activism, Family and the Fight Against Fracking.  Re: Sandra Steingraber in New York State; film director/producer is Chanda Chevannes.

1/19 CCC: Greening our Churches

Creation Corner Column, January 2019: Greening Our Parishes

 With calls to all energy-consuming sectors to reduce their consumption so as to reduce their carbon-footprint, our churches are attempting to respond as faithful environmental stewards to that call.  Such creation care concerns can be followed with considering the following.

 ·         Examine key biblical passages and denominational social statements.

·         Review the ecological thought from those who historically witnessed as saints and seers.

·         Read the treatises on the eco-theology subject by contemporary authors from your faith tradition.

·         Look at your parish property practices, as with an energy and purchasing audit.

·         Consider the environmental perspectives outside of the church, as from secular groups.

·         Propose the start of a parish environmental "creation care" ministry.

·         Promote a dialogue within parish ministries for education, worship, music, outreach, etc.

·         Determine a priority "application" list for changes, as such may involve so-called "low-hanging fruit" quickly and easily accomplished in the areas of recycling, avoidance of toxic chemicals and plastic containers, water consumption reduction, car-pooling, paper types, insulation, thermostat settings, garbage/refuse reduction, re-lamping with more energy-efficient lights (CFLs, LEDs), among other ideas.

·         Use the church calendar year and secular observances to raise up creation care concerns such as the January anniversary of the birth of Albert Schweitzer, the spring Soil and Water Stewardship Sunday Week materials, Arbor Day, Earth Day Sunday, the Environmental Sabbath, St. Francis Day, Harvest Home, CROP Walk, Thanksgiving, seasonal changes with each solstice and equinox, etc.

·         Provide "take-home" messages to parishoners about lifestyle changes possible within their households.

·         Urge the understanding of how financial stewardship (saving money on parish utility bills) intersects with environmental stewardship.

·         Use outdoor camp experiences to teach learning from nature.

·         Help people who acknowledge their concern for God's creation to be more seriously concerned by providing them with "next steps" they could take.

·         Raise up topics for study group consideration:  technology, ocean pollution, consumerism and resource depletion, Christian responsibility and endangered species, fertile soil, forests, abundant and clean water, human health and air pollution, energy conservation and efficiency, toxic chemicals, global climate disruption, etc.

·         Provide a list of web resources; bibliographies of relevant books, periodicals and articles; social media sites; liturgical resources; ecumenical and inter-faith resolutions; appropriate films, television documentaries, music compact discs; dvd's; podcasts; novels; poetry; biographies; travel and nature writings, etc.

·         Ask important questions about product purchase boycotts, fossil fuel divestment, legal actions, signing petition protest, endorsing and/or participating in environmental demonstrations, the questions having to do with "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven";  "For where your treasure is there your heart will also be", "talking the talk and walking the walk", etc.

Much within the above list of 'pointers" are derived from Greening The Orthodox Parish: A Handbook for Christian Ecological Practice by Frederick W. Krueger, intended for the lay reader and those in ministry. 

 Also noted above are some suggestions of mine (this columnist) not included in Krueger's near-500 page text published in 2012 by The Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration, with an introduction by Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarchate and Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome.

                                                                -30-

Mike Ochs blogs at http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com .

He earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College (1965), and a Master's from Lock Haven University (1989), where he studied the international Green Party movement.

12/18 CCC: Climate Chaos Indicator Studies

                                      Creation Corner Column for December 2018

                                   Climate Chaos Indicator Studies

"Education is the seed that provides spiritual and individual growth" Catching The Dream organization

1.  The U.S. Global Change Research Program issued its National Climate Assessment in November.  Three-hundred author scientists from thirteen agencies produced a 1000+ page report without censorship.  Climate changes across the United States will result in many consequences of impacts, (damaged community infrastructure and ecosystems, the spread of disease, reduced agricultural crop yield outputs and thus less economic growth) and risks (extreme weather events, coral die-off, arctic region effects, coastal and river flooding, heat-related morbidity and mortality, and tourism impacts).

The report urges "immediate and substantial global greenhouse-gas emissions reductions" to help keep the rising temperature from exceeding a safe level of 1.5 degrees celsius.

As weather extremes become more common, the effects of such warming will "threaten the health and well-being of the American people" and "disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges and revealing new risks" said one report author in a TIME magazine of December 10 article, "Trump deaf to dire U.S. climate warning."

An Associated Press story of November 24 notes that warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration" and that the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015.

It is thought that 90% of the current warming is caused by humans (for example, the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, all fossil fuels), and that only 10% is due to natural cycles.

One report co-author, evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe said "As a climate scientist, it is almost surreal...We are seeing the things we said would be happening, happen now in real life."

  

2.  The most recent 2018 findings and recommendations from the  U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.ch) are in the Global Warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC Special Report.  A 30-page "Summary for Policymakers" covers the 500-page document.

One commentary on that IPCC report, by United Methodist layman Bill McKibben (founder of 350.org), may be seen as his "A Very Grim Forecast" in The New York Review of Books November 22, 2018 issue.

3.  On November 27, the World Meteorological Organization warned of a high possible chance that a natural ocean-warming El Nino phenomenon, worsened by climate change, may strike in 2019.

4. The December United Nations' annual climate change summit in Poland, known as COP24 is a follow-up to the Paris agreement of keeping the global warming well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.  Nineteen major economies re-affirmed their commitment to that, the only holdout being the United States.  Signatories are expected to live up to their promised efforts to cut their greenhouse emissions and report them.

5. Responding to climate chaos are U.S. youth, claiming that our government is violating their constitutional rights (life, liberty, property) by supporting activities that hasten climate change.  Their lawsuit, Juliana v. the United States of America winds its way through the court system.  Filed in 2015 by 21 American youth, it reflects their concerns about where they live, for example, on a FL barrier island surrounded by rising water, a LA  small town devastated by a 1000 year flood, a Navajo Nation home no longer inhabitable due to the springs the family depends upon for agriculture having dried up.  USA public resources are also viewed as being threatened.  These young people hope to legally promote a zero-carbon economy.

Perhaps children will yet lead us.

                                                                         -30-

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Mike Ochs blogs at http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com .

He earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College (1965), and a Master's from Lock Haven University (1989), where he studied the international Green Party movement.

11/18 CCC: Faith Groups' Climate Change Statements

Faith Groups' Climate Change Statements

Creation Corner Column for 11/18

"We're talking about about the existential environmental challenge issue of our time" (climate change).  David Yarnold, Audubon CEO/President.

The National Religious Coalition on Creation Care (NRCCC.org) has issued a handbook for faith leaders and climate activists, Religion and Global Climate Change, edited by Frederick W. Krueger.

It contains

1. recommendations for action by you and your congregation;

2. scientific perspectives explaining the urgent need for action to address climate change;

3. examples of expressions by faith leaders on the need to speak out;

4. photographic images of this growing global crisis; and

5. formal declaration statements from faith organizations on climate change.

The latter include these from the ecumenical community, including

• American Baptist Churches, USA
• Church of the Brethren
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
• United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
• Evangelical Climate Initiative
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group
• The Episcopal Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America
• Southern Baptist Convention
• African American Clergy
• United Church of Christ
• The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
• World Council of Churches

Interfaith perspectives include these:

• Resolution of the Central Conference of American Rabbis
• The Rabbinical Assembly
• A Pan-Buddhist Declaration
• A Hindu Declaration
• The Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change
• Muslim Guide to Climate Change from the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences 

You, the reader, are encouraged to acquaint yourself with the creation care concerns of your faith tradition, as well as the viewpoints of secular and governmental groups noted in this volume:

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Science Foundation
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Union of Concerned Scientists USA
• The Smithsonian Institution
• Center for Naval Analysis
• World Bank
• United Nations
• National Academy of Sciences
• U.S. Department of Defense and National Intelligence Council, etc.

The most recent 2018 findings and recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.ch) Global Warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC Special Report.  A 30-page "Summary for Policymakers" covers the 500-page document.

One commentary on that IPCC report, by United Methodist layman Bill McKibben (founder of 350.org), may be seen as his "A Very Grim Forecast" in The New York Review of Books November 22, 2018 issue.

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Mike Ochs blogs at http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com .

He earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College (1965), and a Master's from Lock Haven University (1989), where he studied the international Green Party movement.

                                                                 -30-

10/18 CCC: review of Krueger's "The Sacred in Nature"

Creation Corner Column for October 2018

Review: The Sacred in Nature, Frederick W. Krueger, editor.

This 2017 anthology, sub-titled "The World's Inspired Writings on Religious Responsibility for Earth" demonstrates that we, global citizens of a shared planet and united across generations by a religious literature covering all faith communities, need to affirm our responsibility to protect our natural resources.  Harmony among diverse sources provides hope for cooperation to preserve the world.

In nearly 600 quotations from nearly 300 authors, we are inspired to learn from one another.  Common themes are in chapters such as: (1) God (the sacred) is within the creation ("in, with, and under all things"); (2) that we encounter such in nature; (3) can learn from it; (4) should have respect for and find solidarity with all creatures, great and small; (5) and trees and forests; (6) we can provide witness to wilderness; (7) and have a land ethic; (8) how we are imperiled by what is known as a "nature deficit disorder" and how some of our healing may be found in the environment; (9) that we can seek to grow in holiness so as to better serve God, ourselves and nature; (10) and by doing so we can be inspired to transform the earth.

Without needing to provide an extensive treatise of our ecological concerns that science attempts to address, the role of religion, as Krueger sees it, is to provide a moral and ethical direction to remedy a crisis wrought by selfish greed, exploitation and apathy.

Invoking "timeless principles and requirements for a healthy earth," Krueger's "messengers" call for a restraint of technology that amplify human capabilities to disrupt the integrity of creation.  The book illustrates the needed  "vision, advocacy, support, direction and healing action."

This 236 page book has 25 pages of contributor biographies, and a 5-page author index.  Among the authors  frequently cited (with six or more quotes) are Ecumenical (Green) Patriarch Bartholomew of the Worldwide Eastern Orthodox, Gautamu Buddha, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther, The Prophet Mohammad, John Muir, Sigurd F. Olson (American Baptist), Dr. Philip Sherrard (U.K. theologian), New Theologian Saint Symeon (949-1022), and Henry David Thoreau.

Krueger, an Eastern Orthodox Christian, is the executive director of the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care.  Among his other books are

2014 Religion and Global Climate Change: An Activist's Handbook

2012 Greening the Orthodox Parish: A Handbook for Christian Ecological Practice

1995 The Lord's House: A Guide to Creation Careful Management of Church Facilities

1988 Christian Ecology: Building an Environmental Ethic for the Twenty First Century: The Proceedings from the First North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology

Krueger's  current series will include a forthcoming volume 2, (with chapters on stewardship, global climate change, inter-faith theologies of creation, etc.) and a third volume (chapters include themes of holy dominion, wisdom and symbolism in the world's design, earth healing, etc.).

Also note that the upcoming November 1-7 Parliament of the World's Religions in Toronto will include an InterFaith Climate Action Assembly and Program Initiative Climate Action | parliamentofreligions.org

Climate Action | parliamentofreligions.org

This "Creation Corner Column" by Lutheran layman Michael Ochs began 21 years ago this month under the auspices of the 70+ year old ecumenical United Churches of Lycoming County, based in Williamsport PA.

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Mike Ochs blogs at http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com .

He earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College (1965), and a Master's from Lock Haven University (1989), where he studied the international Green Party movement.

9/18 CCC: Green Bible 10th anniversary

September 2018 Creation Corner Column                                      

                                    10th Anniversary of The Green Bible

The tenth anniversary of The Green Bible: Understand the Bible's Powerful Message for the Earth is this year. 

Originally published in 2008, it, as a "green-letter edition", is such that it has green ink print that highlight passages so as to illustrate:  

...how God and Jesus interact with, care for, and are intimately involved with all creation

...how all the elements of creation---land, water, air, plants, animals, humans---are interdependent

...how nature responds to God

...how we are called to care for creation

Also included is a "Green Bible Trail Guide" with scriptural passages substantiating themes of  

 ...And It Was Good

 ...Finding God

 ...Connected to Creation

 ...Creation Care as Justice

 ...The Full Impact of Sin

 ...The New Earth

   

Especially helpful are several essays by prominent ecologists who are also people of religious faith.  For example, environmental scientist Calvin B. DeWitt effectively addresses objections to Christians being involved with creation care; outlines what to do about Creation (awareness, appreciation, stewardship); and notes Biblical principles for creation care (earthkeeping, fruitfulness, Sabbath, discipleship, kingdom priority, contentment, praxis, and conservation).

Matthew Sleeth, M.D., provides several pages of historical quotes on creation; retired pastor Brian McLaren answers the question "Why I Am Green"; Target Earth's Gordon Aeschliman writes that "Loving the Earth is Loving the Poor"; Barbara Brown Taylor offers a sermon, "The Dominion of Love"; Dr. N.T. Wright proclaims "Jesus is Coming---Plant a Tree"; and Liverpool Bishop James Jones declares "Jesus: Savior of the Earth".

Other contributors examine how we can participate in "Knowing Our Place on Earth: Learning  Environmental Responsibility from the Old Testament" ((Professor Ellen Davis); examines "Creation Theology: A Jewish Perspective" (author Ellen Bernstein); and other perspectives are provided by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Wendell Berry, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Pope John Paul II.

An 18-page "Green Subject Index" compiled by Frederick W. Krueger is most impressive.  Krueger is an early pioneer in this field of creation care, from the 1980s 11th Commandment Fellowship and the Christian Society of the Green Cross, and my reading of him at that time was influential.

The Green Bible is in contrast with the "red-letter" editions of the Bible that highlight the words of Jesus in red ink.  Some Christians identify themselves as Red-Letter Christians (see the work of Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo).  There is also the (Thomas) Jefferson Bible, composed by him with New Testament selections that provide another title for his effort, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth".

The Green Bible uses the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version), has a complete A-Z Concordance, and is available in both hard-back and soft-back editions.

                                                               -30-

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Mike Ochs blogs at http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com .

He earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College (1965), and a Master's from Lock Haven University (1989), where he studied the international Green Party movement.