This article is a personal account by Kate O'Sullivan, Chair of the Diocese of Olympia Committee for the Environment of The Healing Our Planet Earth Conference. Kate's article is taken from The Episcopal Ecological Network Newsletter. EpEN is a national network of active lay and clergy persons within the Episcopal Church, USA, who share a common concern for the environment and a common belief in the presence of God in all Creation and who work to make these concerns and beliefs known throughout all Provinces and Dioceses within the church. Members come from the provinces of the Episcopal Church, USA.
Scroll down for the article and pictures
Healing our Planet Earth: Singing a New Song of Hope: The first national Episcopal Conference on the Environment (photos courtesy of Barbara Brower)
Bellevue, WA, April 12, 2008
Two years ago, Chris Christensen,
a long time professional environmentalist, in conversation with 
Bishop
Nedi Rivera of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, conceived an idea – to
host the first national conference on the environment in Seattle.
Planning for the conference was a long struggle for many reasons – a
conference like this had never been done before. There were many
questions, differences in approach and values amongst the
collaborators. With much persistence, hope and patience, the planners
worked through their struggles. Planners who had never collaborated
with each other before learned how to work together well. The
difficulties were heightened when the conference location had to be
moved at the last minute from hotel to church. Despite all this on
April 12th, at Saint Margaret's Church in Bellevue, the idea to host
this conference became a reality in wonderful and joyful ways.
As both a participant in the planning and an attendee of the conference, the day was a rite of passage for me. After years of whining about the lack of response to climate crisis within the Episcopal Church, I was thrilled to hear our 
Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori talk as scientist, priest and theologian. She spoke about the health of our oceans, so damaged by pollution and global warming and the impact of this damage on people and on all of God's creatures. Theologian Sallie McFague invited us into the very important work of changing the hearts and minds of our church members – vital for the changes in life styles needed to reverse global warming trends. Bishop Steven Charleston reminded us of the importance of healing our earth with love, hope and laughter. He challenged us to help pass the Genesis Covenant through the national Episcopal General Convention of 2009. (The Genesis Covenant is an invitation to all faith traditions to make a commitment at the national level to reducing facility greenhouse gas emissions by 50% within ten years of signing-on.) One common theme of all the talks was the recognition that environmental justice and economic justice go hand in hand, and that environmental problems are already resulting in enormous human suffering.
The conference talks were embedded within a day-long Eucharist service, with glorious liturgy designed by Dent Davidson – drums, flute and song invited us into our individual and collective heart work. Those who will inherit our legacy, the youth of the diocese led our prayers. Many contributed to the lunch time workshops and panels. Our hosts at Saint Margaret's worked all day to welcome us, and to keep the refreshments flowing. Last, but not least, we were blessed with a warm spring day!
This account would not be complete without mention of the event hosted the evening before, at Seattle's new Olympic Sculpture Park. Writer and professor, Doug Thorpe created a multi-media performance honoring the land upon which the museum was built. 
Liturgical dancer, Betsy Beckman offered a marvelous dance performance throughout the presentation. The narration told of the geological formation of the land itself, its inhabitation by First Peoples, its violent appropriation by European settlers and its decay into a toxic waste site. It ended with a celebration of the land's recent resurrection into a place of beauty, healing and recreation. The presentation was followed by talks by Bishop Greg Rickel, of the 
Diocese of Olympia and by our Presiding Bishop. Both urged us to confront the great harm that has been done to creation and to begin the work of earth healing. The evening was a deep lesson in the power and ability to bring healing where there is suffering; for death to be followed by resurrection.
It is all too easy for our hearts to be stirred by events such as these and then for our busy lives to return to business as usual. We all need much prayer, many reminders and support from each other to make the sorts of individual, family and community changes that will be needed if we are to play our parts in earth healing. I am imagining that after this enormous work, no one wants to hear that we shall have to do this again. But I strongly believe that we need to keep this work going. Perhaps our future work will involve struggling with questions such as these:
How do we support this work at the parish and diocesan levels?
How might our educational programs respond to these invitations?
How might our worship respond to these invitations?
How might we work with those in other denominations and other faiths to collaborate in earth healing together?
How might we bring joy and play into our lives as we work to heal our earth?
And most importantly - How might we best co-create with God?
In working with these questions, we will mirror the challenges of the conference planners – there will be much struggle, differences in approach and values. But just as the planners of this conference were able to form a functional whole, so also will those who take this dream to "sing a new song" forward. I hope that we might all be intentional about keeping the dialogue, the creation-care, the dreaming and the doing flowing and open to God's grace and wisdom.
Photos courtesy of Barbara Brower are not part of original article.
Copyright by Episcopal Ecological Network
Comments