April 11 - 17, 2005
April 11 - 17, 2005
SOLI/Update
What is nature to you? For a lot of us, nature is the place we travel to on vacation every summer. Or the things we learn about on the Discovery Channel.
Many of us live in such insular environments. We work in air-conditioned offices, live in heated houses, shop in climate-controlled malls and drive everywhere in cozy cars with CD players, cruise control and cup holders. It’s easy to forget that nature is neither places nor things, but rather the intricate global web of delicately balanced systems that sustain life on our planet.
It’s easy to forget that human beings are just one very small part of those interconnected systems. It’s easy to forget that the Earth and all its wonder and complexity are the handiwork of our creator God who appointed us as the stewards.
That’s why now, at the beginning of the third millennium, we especially need the church to remind us of these truths. This year, please consider doing something for Earth Day Sunday at your church on April 24, or for Rogation Sunday on May 1.
Earth Day is just 35 years old in 2005, but Rogation goes back centuries in the church's memory as a seed-time celebration. By observing Rogation Sunday or Earth Day Sunday you help speak the Gospel of life against a consumer culture that denigrates God's creation as mere resources to exploit for money.
"Our liturgical celebration of Earth Day is not a romantic rite of spring," ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson writes in an Earth Day message. "It is a matter of life and death, as we proclaim the Risen Christ as Lord of the Earth and seek to reclaim the Earth for him."
This week’s resources contain some great ideas and programs to get you going.
Good luck!
-Rob Blezard, editor and webmaster
New this week:
Celebrate
Rogation Sunday May 1...
...
or Earth Day Sunday April 24
This year Earth Day celebrates 35 years, and Earth Day Sunday is April 24. The
ELCA is joining the National Council of Churches in calling on congregations to
mark Earth Day with services, sermons that stress "Sacred Oceans and Seas."
Click here
for the National Council of Churches Earth Day resources, including educational
programs, bulletin inserts, order of worship and sermon starter.
Click here for the Earth Day letter from
Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA.
Click here for a bundle of liturgical resources from Web of
Creation.
Me,
my stuff, and I
The young author from Campus Life gives a quiz for her peers, but consumers of
every age group can learn from this introspective questionnaire. Might make a
good resource for teaching stewardship to youth.
Click here for the article. From
CampusLife.net.
When God satisfies, I shall not want
"Some people have that problem with things other than food. They shop just to shop. They watch shopping shows or even just commercials so that they can find things to want. Things they know they don't need and wonder what to do with when they get them home." Click here for the Rev. Dana Reardon's weekly column on stewardship.
Jürgen Moltmann:
Reconciliation with Nature
This
fine essay by one of our era's pre-eminent Protestant theologians is just one in
a
classic edition of Word & World, published by
Luther Seminary, St. Paul. The issue provides in-depth scholarly treatment to
the environment issues, including:
The Responsibility of Royalty: Genesis 1-11 and the Care
of the Earth - James Limburg
The Weeping Mask: Ecological Crisis and the View of Nature
- Vitor Westhelle
Environmental Concern and Economic Justice -
Peri Rasolondraibe
Ecology, Feminism and Theology - Mary Ann
Hinsdale
The Church's Role in Environmental Action -
Calvin DeWitt
THIS WEEK'S RECYCLING BIN OFFERING!