USING A MODEL: THE FAITH COMMUNITY AS A GREEN ZONE  

BY • DAVID RHOADS

Where do we begin the process of developing new attitudes and behavior toward the environment and our relation to it individually and as a community of faith? It may be helpful to identify specifically the congregation, school, place of business or the home as a place to care for the earth and to name that model or plan for fostering that climate. Some have described such places as Creation Awareness Centers or as Healing Places. The model referred to in this essay identifies such a faith community (such as a† congregation or theological school) as a Green Zone. Such a name is intended to make the concerns and commitment of faith community and its' leaders publicly recognizable to the wider community. Such a model, it is hoped, will foster creativity in thinking about how to deal with the human impact on the environment. It is also intended to encourage comprehensive thinking about the environment in relation to every area of community life, so that these faith communities and individuals in them can work toward a holistic approach to living in harmony and justice with the environment. The purpose of this essay is to motivate such creative and integrated thinking and action.

What is a Green Zone?

Very simply, a Green Zone is a geographical area in which lifestyle and activities promote a healthy environment and where the people are committed to the healing of creation. Activities in a Green Zone have a four-fold emphasis:

1) Transformation through worship and education

• Introduce concerns for creation into every area of communal life.
• Incorporate concerns for creation into worship including confession, forgiveness, thanksgiving, intercession, music, preaching.
• Create rituals for tree plantings, litanies over our despoiling of the environment, petitions for endangered species, blessing of the animals and trees, and so on.
• Make banners and decorate worship with reminders of our love for creation. Teach care of the earth in classes for adults and children.
• Provide forums and workshops on the problems of the environment and what can be done. Bring in speakers from local organizations.
• Provide information about local recycling centers and disposal sites.
• Expose attitudes which lead to damage of the environment, and teach theologies and biblical resources which foster healing.
• Introduce people to ethical issues they will be facing in the struggles over scarce resources, job losses, and environmental damage.
• Help people to love the natural environment, and develop a spirituality rooted in creation.
• Connect people to nature with retreats, nature walks, outings, awareness of nature around the church.
• Inform people about local, national and world issues on the environment.
• Provide symbols which enable people to identify with issues of creation awareness.
• Provide books and periodicals in the library. Promote them in church bulletins and newsletters.

2) Make the geographical area of the parish into a "zone" which is safe for the environment

Do a comprehensive "environmental inventory" for:

Everything which comes in:

• Bring fewer resources onto the property and into the building: less energy, less water, less paper.
• Avoid the purchase of products with packaging that cannot be recycled.
• Bring in recycled stationary, bulletin paper, towels, toilet paper. Bring in products which will be safely used and safely disposed.
• Consider mowing by hand, using no pesticides, prohibiting smoking, using cloth napkins (no paper cups, plates, table cloths).
• Provide as much of your own resources as possible: plant gardens and fruit trees, use water from drainage, plant trees near buildings for shade, get wind mills, solar energy.

The use of everything:

• Use all products more efficiently. Purchase furnaces and appliances which are the most energy efficient.
• Get energy audits, and provide insulation (weather stripping, caulking, storm windows, shutters thermal curtains, tinted glass, trees), improve energy efficiency, and regulate thermostats .
• Use less water by means of toilet dams, tap shutoffs, faucets, the use of drainage water, and no lawn watering.
• Avoid all unnecessary use of paper. Use office paper completely and efficiently.
• Use only safe products and use them up.
• Use plants inside which purify the air.

Everything which goes out:

• Recycle as close to 100 percent of the waste as possible: paper, bulletins, containers, cans, aluminum, plastic, furniture, appliances, batteries.
• Take all toxic waste to proper disposal sites.
• Study the waste baskets and garbage cans periodically in order to see where you can recycle better or avoid products which produce such waste.
• Compost food, grass clippings, leaves, and other organic waste. Do not let warm air escape from the building.

3) Promote a personal lifestyle among members which fosters a healthy environment

• Encourage people to treat their houses, businesses, industries, and other public arenas as Green Zones.
• Provide the tools for people to do an "environmental inventory" of their homes and places of work.
• Provide a "covenant with creation" in which people commit themselves to certain actions on behalf of the environment.
• Pledge and renew the covenant annually at a special worship service.
• Encourage people to consider ecological concerns in diet, transportation, gift-giving, and so on.
• Provide books which list things people can do for the environment and work through the list together.
• Provide interest or support groups to foster change and develop habits.

4) Political Advocacy

• Promote a commitment to action on behalf of the environment in the local, state, national and global arenas.
• Become informed about local, national and global issues. Make your views known to governmental representatives and corporate officers.
• Seek to be advocates and reconcilers in controversy, pursuing creative and forward looking solutions.
• Provide support groups for people affected by environmental issues.
• Engage in educational programs in your community. Organize grass-roots environmental projects.
• Cooperate with other churches and with environmental groups.
• Involve groups in the church in action programs in church and community (e.g. youth or adults weatherizing homes on behalf of the poor and elderly).
• Conduct a letter-writing campaign. Write "letters to the editor."
• Encourage people to join environmental organizations, and participate in local and regional environmental committees.
• Give recognition to people who care for creation in outstanding ways.

Concluding thoughts

Be visionary. The key to a Green Zone is to think comprehensively and creatively. View every external and internal obstacle as an opportunity to learn how we can move toward a new world. Think what your faith community might be like fifty years from now, a place which is an ideal place to care for the earth. Out of such a vision of possibilities, begin step by step to fulfill the hopes that will make your space a place where all God's creation is loved and celebrated. Insofar as we are able to do that, the kingdom is now.

David Rhoads, M.Div., Ph.D., is Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. He is the faculty advisor for the LSTC Green Zone at LSTC.

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