Episcopal Press and News
Critics Charge Church's Response to Environment Includes Procrastination and Pantheism
Episcopal News Service. July 25, 1991 [91151]
Jan Nunley
Warning the Episcopal Church not to get bogged down in the "the luxury of correcting each other's theology while the planet continues to die," Archbishop Michael Peers of the Anglican Church of Canada opened the debate about the environmental crisis at General Convention. Deputies and bishops took up the ongoing, churchwide discussion with legislation that creates a team to craft specific responses to the environmental crisis.
Speaking to an open hearing on the environment, Peers set the tone and touched on many of the issues that would be raised again in testimony from the floor. Commenting after the speech, Peers observed that environmental concerns were often used to score theological and ideological points "on both sides of the issue. I have a sense that that's what's happening here, and it distresses me. We don't have a lot of time. And we will be judged for what we do."
Statements in response to Peers' speech from the Episcopal Environmental Coalition, the Executive Council, and the Irenaeus Fellowship, among others, revealed the tensions inherent in formulating an action plan for the church.
Peers emphasized that the crisis in the world's biosphere isn't merely one of scientific or technological import, but a spiritual crisis as well, a religious problem with its roots in "human sinfulness... rebellion against God as source and mystery of all created life." Pointing to the merits of various approaches to the problem, from feminist theology to aboriginal traditions, Peers warned against falling into "opposite temptations" in the debate on the environment One is a stark utilitarianism, viewing the earth as a resource to be exploited; the other is a "romantic cult of nature" that seeks to turn the world into a "global wilderness park." Neither, says Peers, is consistent with Christian faith rooted in the biblical tradition.
Peers called for environmental education in the parish, political action in communities, and changes in life styles and consuming habits. He particularly targeted Americans as leaders in setting world standards with regard to environmental use. He pointed out that if the U.S. doesn't change its ways with regard to water use, it may be forced to ask Canada -- with most of North America's fresh water -- to help out. To much nervous laughter from the predominantly American audience, Peers asked, "When you come asking, what should our response be: 'Clean up your act, reform your life style, and then we'll share?"'
In comments following the speech, former Bishop of Atlanta Bennett J. Sims blasted charges made by members of the Irenaeus Fellowship and the Episcopal Coalition on Religious Freedom that a report by the Presiding Bishop's Consultation on the Environment and Sustainable Development was "flawed by the pagan heresy of Gnosticism and a tone of environmental triumphalism." The charge stems from the acceptance of the concept of "panentheism," the belief that God is present in all creation, by the report. "Whether or not panentheism is heresy is a matter for debate, but I believe we must risk it," stated Sims.
"I really hate to disagree with Bennett Sims," replied William Wantland, bishop of Eau Claire, in a follow-up speech, "but panentheism is clearly contrary to the Christian concept of creation." Wantland, of Seminole ancestry, said his Native American roots inform his concern for the creation "to the seventh generation," but that the church in working to preserve the environment must do so from a clearly Christian perspective. Wantland's position was backed up by several speakers from the Episcopal Coalition for Religious Freedom, who criticized what they saw as "fuzzy theology and fuzzy thinking" in resolutions now before the convention. "I'm not sure of the value of an Episcopal EPA," commented the coalition's chair Lawrence Adams, referring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Several proposals for practical solutions to the church's approach to the environment were vigorously debated.
Proposals by the Standing Commission on Human Affairs to create a Standing Commission on the Environment and Sustainable Development, and establishing a funded staff position at the Episcopal Church Center, were seriously hampered by the costs anticipated to make them a reality. Both Scott Evans and Diane Pollard of the Episcopal Environmental Coalition argued for the creation of an alternative, a top-level Committee on the Environment costing $75,000 to fund and made up of lay people and clergy involved in environmental work.
The convention finally adopted a team approach for education, advocacy, and action in the church on the environment: the creation of an Environmental Stewardship Team, a 14-member "interdisciplinary, multicultural" group selected by the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies from each province of the church. Funded by a $100,000 line item in the program budget, the team will report to the Executive Council during the next three years and to the General Convention in 1994.
House of Bishops environment committee secretary Robert G. Tharp, bishop coadjutor of East Tennessee, was surprised and pleased at the variety of the responses at the hearing. "We heard a scope here (from) resources we haven't used, and we've got to find these people and use them. We have got to discover our own talent."
Resolutions on environmental issues which ihe convention approved include:
- Request promotion of the Valdez Principles addressing planetary environmental concerns (A-109a).
- Acknowledge the sovereignty of God and continue to engage environmental issues, passionately caring for the earth and striving to live as stewards of creation (A-195s).
- Call for the implementation of statement on the environment of the 1988 Lambeth Conference (D-041).
- Call on the Episcopal Church, at national, provincial, diocesan, and local levels to seek diligently and intentionally to reduce the use of paper in the conduct of its business, including by adopting as policy the practice of printing and photocopying on both sides of the paper it uses (D-087).
- Express support for the Endangered Species Act (D-124).
- Oppose the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil development (D-125).