Candlelit services are nothing new for religious organizations. So when businesses, governments, and individuals turn off their lights Saturday at 8 p.m. local time, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be holding special gatherings. This global event is the second annual Earth Hour, the creation of the World Wildlife Fund to inspire people to take action on climate change.

In Toronto, The Church of the Holy Trinity in conjunction with KAIROS Ecumenical Justice Initiatives will be hosting an event called Songs, Stories, and Ritual for the Healing of the Earth with singing, poetry, and drumming.

In Atlanta, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light is persuading its 120 Christian, Jewish and Buddhist congregations to power down on March 29. The group is part of a national campaign led by Rev. Sally Bingham, that assists congregations in going green by doing free energy audits and offering teaching resources on the environment as a faith issue.

In Sydney, St. Mark’s Anglican Church has been transitioning into an “eco-church” since Earth Hour 2007.

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In light of these statements, Easter celebrators might want to reflect on how the story of Easter relates to the environment.

Theologian Herman-Emiel Mertens writes,

“Those who do not understand the link between the Easter message and ecological problems, do not understand anything of either. Environmentalism in itself is of course no utterance of Easter faith. Many non-Christians are concerned about this. That is only right and proper. A monopolizing of these earthly cares by Christians is out of the question. There is environmentalism without Easter faith, but no Easter faith without environmentalism.” (Not the Cross, but the Crucified, 207)

Easter is, at its core, a very deep holiday about overcoming violence brought on by institutional structures. That is the power of Christ’s resurrection. The holiday is a display of active hope. It’s the enjoyment of a spring afternoon with family and friends in anticipation of a springlike renewal for the environment. Active hope is celebration that motivates creative action for a peaceful future.

What I like about Green Options Media is that every article written is a display of active hope. What we are seeing in the blogosphere is a celebration of creativity in the face of a challenging situation.

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Thanks to Dean A. Current, who has spent years developing methods for sustainable palm harvesting, churches now have a green option for buying palms.

Current is a research associate for University of Minnesota’s Department of Forest Resources. He has worked with Rainforest Alliance to prevent over-harvesting palms each year, make sure less palms are wasted, and give harvesters in Guatemala a fair wage for their efforts. Twenty-five percent of the program’s revenue goes right back into the communities where the palms are harvested.

These eco-palms will find their way to over 2000 congregations around the U.S. This represents less than 2% of the 35 to 40 million palms ordered annually, but the amount is increasing exponentially each year. The effort began with a pilot program of 5000 palms in 2005 and has increased to 600,000.

Not every congregation is crazy about the idea of eco-palms. They cost about twice as much and some people don’t think they’re as pretty as traditional palms. Fair enough, but how much will they cost after over-harvesting takes its toll? Is a slightly longer palm frond really worth putting a community’s livelihood at risk and threatening the health of the forest?

Current hopes more congregations will see the wisdom of using eco-palms on Palm Sunday.

More info:

Palm Sunday Gets Environmentally Friendly, The Minnesota Daily

Churches Go ‘Green’ for Palm Sunday, USA Today

More articles in the Green Lent series:

Spanish Literature and Religious Environmentalism: A Green Lent Update

What Does Lent Have to Do with Sharpening Green Habits?

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The Boston Globe published an article today about Nina M. Scott, a retired University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of Spanish Literature. Instead of chocolate, Scott has chosen to give up carbon this Lent. She is doing a few extra things to reduce her carbon footprint, such as hanging her clothes up instead of using a drier and carpooling to use less fuel.

“For me it’s that connection between protecting nature and faith,” she says. She and a dozen of her friends at Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst first got the idea when they heard about two Church of England bishops who encouraged parishioners to go on a low carbon diet for Lent. (Check out my article, “What Does Lent Have to Do With Sharpening Green Habits?”)

The Globe article also mentioned this past weekend’s Yale Divinity School’s conference “Renewing Hope: Pathways to Religious Environmentalism.” This is the conference that screened the film Renewal, which I wrote about last week. The Globe pointed out the conference to illustrate the movement that is taking place, that religions are becoming enlightened to their environmental responsibilities. Sure, the religious environmentalism movement is picking up speed, but it’s certainly not new. Interfaith Power & Light, which is featured in Renewal, founded by the Rev. (now Canon) Sally Bingham, Environmental Minister at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, has been around for over a decade.

The spiritual wisdom that human beings and nature are intimately connected goes back to the beginning of civilization. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican intellectual and playwright, one of Nina M. Scott’s academic specialties and no doubt influences, was a Mexican nun in the 1600s who caused a big stir in Mexico for writing plays criticizing colonialism. She was a member of a group of nuns called Discalced Carmelites, known for being barefoot.

When she challenged the excessive mining for ore and military conquest in the name of God, she was punished by her superiors. Sor Juana’s spirit lives on, not just in feminist literary criticism, but in a religious organization called Santuario Sisterfarm, in my neighborhood (the Central Texas Hill Country). The Sisterfarm calls their mission an “eco-ethno-spiritual quest,” empowering latinas to go deep into their ancestral connection to the land. They practice organic farming and seed storage of non-genetically modified seeds in an ethic of “Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.” They also run a publishing house called Sor Juana Press.

The term “religious environmentalism” may be new, but the spiritual wisdom is old. Religious environmentalism is uncovering these ancient traditions, and it’s good to see it getting more press these days.

Bartholomew first earned his reputation with the statement, “Crime against the natural world is a sin.” His grandest endeavor was inviting 200 scientists, journalists, and political leaders to hang out with him on a cruise ship. They traveled around the Adriatic Sea to observe the ecological degradation taking place. During the symposium, he persuaded Pope John Paul II to adopt his agenda.

This achievement symbolized what he has been able to do, bringing together the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the scientific and religious communities. Both of these pairs have found themselves in opposition to one another, but Bartholomew I describes his work as the “green bridge” uniting everyone, religious and non-religious. He has received a U.S Congressional Gold Medal and the Sophie Prize for his efforts.

There is a conciliar process to select Bartholomew I’s successor, much like the Roman Catholic Church’s selection of popes. The future of the office is uncertain right now, however, due to the dwindling number of Orthodox Christians in Turkey and restrictions that the Turkish government places on who can be Patriarch. There has been discussion of moving the office to another country, after nearly seventeen centuries in Constantinople. It will be interesting to see whether the next Ecumenical Patriarch, wherever he happens to be located, continues the green mission of his predecessor.

Bartholomew I was #1 in Grist’s “15 Green Religious Leaders” last July.

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“‘We are the ones who are late to the table,’ [Rev. Joel] Hunter said. An emerging national evangelical leader on environmental issues, Hunter said the goal of the conference was to ‘get mutually stirred up’ and to ‘assume stewardship’ of this issue.”

Evangelical leaders gathered at Northland, a Church Distributed to hammer out “creation care.” If these green evangelicals are beginning to embrace terms like “sustainable,” “green,” and even “carbon neutral,” but still shudder at the sound of “environmentalism,” are we really all sitting at the same table? Or are we sitting at completely different tables, looking at the same evidence, but pretending to ignore each other’s solutions?

The elephant in the room is the rocky relationship between environmentalists and evangelicals. Both have a history of dismissing one another; environmentalists for being anti-religious and misanthropic, and evangelicals for intolerance and anthropocentrism. The rivalry has dissolved, probably because the mounting evidence of global warming has hit a critical level of importance for just about every household in America, across the political spectrum.

As someone who has been a part of both conversations, I have some constructive ideas for both parties if we are going to sit together.

Evangelicals should be familiar with Lynn White, Jr.’s groundbreaking essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” White makes the assertion that Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has ever seen. The belief that “nature has no reason for existence save to serve man” has played a role in the utter disregard for the planet. Humble pie is on the menu, and evangelicals need to be able to admit that people outside their circles have something to teach them with regard to morality.

Environmentalists must recognize the amount of influence that religion has. If substantial progress is to be made, we will have to work together. Inroads have been made. With more evangelicals seeing the need for environmental responsibility, they are working alongside secular groups in clean-up projects and public policy efforts (Scroll to “Evangelical leaders join scientists to fight global warming“). Amidst all the dirt and sweat, new relationships are being forged.

If we are all going to sit at the same table and talk about the future, we need to be familiar with each other’s language. The word “stewardship” implies ownership of the Earth’s resources as well as human priority and should be used carefully outside of Sunday morning worship. “Creation care” sounds like the Earth is a damsel in distress in need of a knight in shining armor. We can’t forget that the planet did OK taking care of itself for billions of years before humans took over.

I have hope that we can work together for a better future, but we can’t ignore one another’s efforts.

So what does this table look like? Tree-huggers look a lot different than they used to. Has the message been diluted or enhanced now that the evangelicals have arrived?

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These are just a handful of the stories told by veteran filmmakers Terry Kay Rockefeller and Marty Ostrow in their upcoming documentary, Renewal.

RENEWAL is the first feature-length documentary to capture the breadth and vitality of America’s religious-environmental movement. In rural communities, suburbs and cities, people of faith are rolling up their sleeves in practical and far-reaching ways. Offering a profound message of hope, RENEWAL shows individuals and communities driven by the deepest source of inspiration - their spiritual and religious convictions - being called to re-examine what it means to be human and how we live on this planet .

(from renewalproject.net)

This evening marks the premiere at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the first of seven screenings. Next weekend, Yale University’s Forum on Religion and Ecology is hosting a conference which will screen the film. Renewal has also been selected to be featured at the Atlanta Film Festival in April.

The Renewal Project wants to see secular and religious groups build partnerships that will strengthen their efforts. They are looking for clergy, congregational networks, environmental activists, local governments, civic organizations, scholars and theologians to join The Renewal Circle. Members of The Renewal Circle get advance copies of the film to share with their organizations and tips on how to work with the film.

In the news: today’s Boston Globe review of the film.

Photo: courtesy of Flickr, licensed for public use through Creative Commons.

Marking the beginning of the Easter season, worshipers go to church on Ash Wednesday (often still recovering from Fat Tuesday) and get ash spread on their foreheads. The ash is a symbol of contrition and repentance. Then everyone is expected to give up meat and beer and act gloomy for the next 6 weeks. Sound like fun? No wonder Mardi Gras is so popular!

But when you think about it, a collective confession can be incredibly meaningful in light of our complicity in greenhouse gas emissions. The tradition of Lent has potential for inspiring action. In addition to repentance, the ritual of smearing carbon on faces can visually represent the carbon we are contributing in our daily lives. The following are some reformulations of the elements of Lent with a green focus. (These principles are intended to be helpful to people of any faith background or none at all.)

• Confession. You’ve been incredibly good this year. You’ve spent countless hours poring over the Green Options blogs. You’ve made many changes to your lifestyle. For the CO2 you are guilty of emitting, you have purchased carbon offsets. You’ve even worked on promoting public policy aimed at a greener tomorrow. It is OK to be proud of yourself for being well on your way to carbon neutrality. But it helps to participate in a rhythm, every now and then, once a year, looking at how far we need to go as a society. Now that green is mainstream, green-washing and half-a**ing our way to a warmer planet is a new concern. Even if I were carbon neutral, I am still throwing my sustainably earned dollar into a carbon-spewing economy. Small doses of intentional reflection and confession every now and then keep us grounded and healthy.
• Fasting. For those of us who don’t yet have a Nobel in our pockets, a certain amount of giving something up for a specified amount of time has a centering effect. By the way, if I ever get a Nobel Prize, I’m totally carrying it around in my pocket. Anyway, this practice provides clarity to see what we really need and don’t need. I learned how few luxuries I really need last summer/fall as I backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail for 4 ½ months, hiking from Maine to Georgia. I didn’t even take coffee because I didn’t want to carry anything unnecessary. Even when I don’t have to lug it around in a backpack, I still limit my coffee consumption. (Note: I’m certainly not a locavore fundamentalist. I adore all things tropical. I think Equal Exchange is a more than worthy alternative to abstinence!) Rather than thinking of it as austere self-denial to achieve some higher spiritual plane, I think of these “fasts” as temporary periods when I evaluate my consumptive habits. It helps me rediscover gratitude and happiness in non-material things. If you are a traditional Lent observer, you might think of going without meat as a way to reflect on the effects of factory farming on the environment. If you want to try something crazy, try going without corn—it’s more difficult than you think! The purpose is to go an extra step for a short period of time to foster a more mindful lifestyle year-round.
• Hope. Of course, the solemn and gloomy practice of observing Lent is tempered with the hope that Easter is coming, which offers the expectation that things will get better, and not just because on Easter we break our fasts. We’re working together toward better days ahead and believe that we can do it together. Ultimately, we’re envisioning a better future and then living into the vision. This yearly rhythm is a good way to stay sharp.
• More info: Christians Told: Give up Carbon for Lent

Photo credit: fish burger

It’s kind of ironic that officials in California are placing their faith in mustard seed as a home-grown feedstock for biodiesel fuel, to move their busses from “here to there.”

Monterey-Salinas Transit has proposed producing its own sustainable biodiesel fuel for its fleet operations, planting the seed as a cover crop during the Salinas Valley agriculture industry’s off-season. The beauty, they say, is that the it will not replace food crops normally grown in the area.

Once the seeds are harvested, they’ll be pressed into raw oil, which will then be refined into biofuel. The transit company says it will use the industry standard of 80 percent fossil fuel and 20 percent biodiesel to power its busses.

Testing will begin next week with the planting of two varieties of mustard seed on 30 acres of land owned by San Bernabe Vineyards in South Monterey County. After harvesting, scientists will determine which variety will be the best for biofuel production.

Watsonville-based Energy Alternative Solutions, Inc. has partnered with the transit company to convert the crop into fuel, keeping the entire process in the local area.

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“All of our traditions call us to serve and protect the poor and vulnerable. And it is the world’s poor, who contribute the least to this problem, who will suffer the most from global warming.”

The group asks fellow people of faith to see beyond their differences and make the protection of life on earth a priority. But besides working on global warming soluations, faith communities must prepare to care for those who will be displaces and impoverished by its effects.