From a wildlife habitat at St. Luke Catholic Church near Mint Hill, to test-drives of hybrids at Shalom Park, to greenway development near Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, houses of worship are embracing the environment because of their sense of faith.
“Especially over the last four years I've seen a growing interest in the relationship between the environment and faith,” said John Wear, founding director for the Center for the Environment at Catawba College in Salisbury. “More and more people have examined how the two are related and are now beginning to realize that their actions have a profound effect on the earth and the people living on it.”
This surge in interest has led Wear to host the Faith, Spirituality and Environmental Stewardship conference later this month.
“We want to find out who in the area is pursuing environmental issues from the faith community,” Wear said. “And we'd like to see not only the ministers and rabbis attend, but more importantly the congregational lay leaders.”
Several area religious communities are already deeply engaged in environmental efforts.
St. Luke's sprawling natural grounds won a special designation from the N.C. Wildlife Federation, which singles out churches that embrace the environment.
“You can see deer, rabbits ... blue-tail skink, foxes, and even snakes all on our church grounds,” said Debbie Foster, a volunteer gardener at St. Luke.
Foster, who spends evenings and Saturdays tending the gardens, sees her efforts as a spiritual act. “Where did this earth come from?” Foster asks. “As Christians we believe it has come from God, and we desire to be a good steward of it. Caring for wildlife habitats is just the right thing to do.”
Twelve years ago, the grounds at St. Luke began to blossom and bustle with life, thanks in part to a retired nun named Sister Jay McCann, Foster said. After teaching farming in Africa as a missionary, Sister Jay came to St. Luke. She not only brought gardening skills, but “an incredible love of all things living,” Foster said.
Her faithful attention to the church's natural habitat was contagious and became the catalyst for the efforts that continue today.
From Rock Hill to Belmont, environmental stewardship is calling people to churches.
“We need to stop and be still to see the birds and trees. We often walk by the beauty of God and don't notice it,” said the Rev. William Pentis of The Oratory in Rock Hill. For almost 75 years this center for spirituality has invited people to pull away from the commotion of city life and pray in a serene setting.
Miles away, the Rev. Ray Hardy, of Forest Pointe church in Belmont, is challenging his congregation to wear their watch on the opposite hand to remind them to “keep watch over creation.” So far congregants have cleaned up a highway exit as well as landscaped a park, and Hardy plans on ditching his car this summer and biking to work.
For the past three years, the Jewish community of Shalom Park in Charlotte has hosted an environmental fair that spotlights green technology and provides educational opportunities. They've offered hybrid test drives, screened “An Inconvenient Truth” and raised money to help start a recycling program.
“I've seen people engage their faith and passion,” says Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth-El. A newly formed environmental group worked to make a bar mitzvah “green” and hopes to work with weddings and other events, she said.
Schindler said an ancient text helps guide the temple's efforts. There's a Midrash, (the Jewish legends) on Ecclesiastes that teaches God told Adam after creation: “Everything I made, I created for you. Be careful though that you don't spoil or destroy My world; because if you spoil it, there's nobody after you to fix it.'”
A similar sentiment fuels Myers Park Baptist Church's efforts to reduce energy consumption and cultivate green spaces in the city.
“We believe we are co-creators of God and are called to treat the environment with sacred respect,” says Robin Coira, the Church's executive minister.
For seven years they've had an active EarthKeepers group that's converted a parking lot on Roswell Road into a wildlife habitat and developed a Sunday school curriculum for the church's elementary students focusing on the environment and faith. They've also worked to make the church's buildings and grounds more environmentally friendly.
Committee chair Sonya Dyer said she views her group's work as an act of justice. “Those with the least resources suffer the most from environmental issues. That is true for those in our own country and those in other countries.”
Across town, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church is teaming up with the city to create a sports complex with walking trails and natural spaces in the Beatties Ford Road corridor.
“This is only a start,” said Mary Wilson, the executive director of the Friendship Community Development Corporation. Where there has been blighted neighborhoods and abandoned buildings the corporation is working with the city to extend a greenway through the corridor.
“God has given us this one earth and it is ours to care for it,” she said. “It is very selfish of us not to look at the generations that come behind us.”
Wilson said that it wasn't until her daughter, then in fifth grade, started talking about recycling that she paid attention to environmental issues. “Today my daughter is in medical school; she's seen me come a long way. I began by keeping cloth bags in my car and not buying bottled water and now I'm doing environmental education.”
