ELCA Presiding Bishop Calls For Earth Day Action, Advocacy

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The liturgical celebration of Earth Day is not "a romantic rite of spring," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It is a matter "of life and death," he said in a written message for Earth Day, April 22.
"Our celebration of Easter Sunday 2005 has passed, but the power and promise of Easter continues to reverberate throughout the world -- the whole world," Hanson said in his statement. "According to Scripture, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the day when all things will be made new (Revelation 21:5). Easter is God's promise to all humanity of new life in Christ, but Easter is for the Earth, too."
Hanson thanked Lutherans who have prayed and made plans in recognition of Earth Day, and he encouraged others to join them.
"I also would like to urge each of you to translate your celebrations of Earth's Easter hope into concrete acts of public witness and advocacy," he said.
Hanson said that "reclaiming the Earth for Christ" includes reclaiming it for the "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40), where brothers and sisters in Christ can live in health and safety and enjoy the blessings of God's good creation.
One specific example Hanson cited is the ELCA's northernmost congregation, Shishmaref Lutheran Church, located 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle on the Chukchi Sea, Alaska.
"The forces unleashed by global climate change are literally washing away the earth on which these 600 Inupiat Eskimos live," he said. "Due to increased storms, melting sea ice, thawing permafrost and rising sea levels, their island home will soon be under water. They must uproot themselves and their 4,000-year-old culture and find a new, yet-to-be-determined, place to live."
Hanson asked how people will respond to global climate change and its threat to the well-being of all creatures and species on Earth. In the ELCA's 1993 social statement, "Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice," the church recognized the threat of "dangerous global warming, caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide" and announced that the idea of the Earth as a boundless warehouse, which lies behind such developments, has proven both false and dangerous, he said.
Theologians recently called together by the National Council of Churches USA "called all Americans to acknowledge our sinful complicity in producing one-quarter of the world's carbon emissions which exacerbate global warming, even though we are only five percent of the planet's human population."
Easter celebrations of the Earth are quite different from secular celebrations of Earth Day, Hanson argued.
"We know that we are complicit in the evil we decry," Hanson said. "We are committed to repent of our own sinful misuse and abuse of the Earth, direct and indirect, when we confess our sins."
"But we also are bold in our faith and hope, knowing that God calls and empowers us to confront these issues of life and death. We do this especially for the sake of the poor of the Earth, working on their behalf, even as we contend with entrenched political, economic and social forces," he said.
Hanson added, "God's people of Shishmaref Lutheran Church in Alaska, and all who suffer from our wasteful ways upon this graced and gifted Earth, should expect nothing less of us."
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The complete text of Presiding Bishop Hanson's Earth Day statement is at
http://www.elca.org/bishop/m_earthdayletter.html on the ELCA Web site.

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John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news