United Methodist
Church
“Environmental Justice for a Sustainable Future” (1992)
“Our Social Principles: I. The Natural World.” (n.d.) http://www.umc-gbcs.org/
God’s
Renewed Creation: A Call to Hope and Action
A Pastoral Letter in Liturgical
Setting from the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church
(adopted November 3, 2009 at Lake Junaluska, NC: http://bit.ly/bGG7Bf)
God’s creation is in crisis. We, the Bishops of The United Methodist Church,
cannot remain silent while God’s people and God’s planet suffer.
This beautiful natural world is a loving gift from God, the Creator of all things
seen and unseen. God has entrusted its care to all of us, but we have turned
our backs on God and on our responsibilities. Our neglect, selfishness, and pride
have fostered:
• pandemic poverty and disease;
• environmental degradation, and
• the proliferation of weapons and violence. (i)
Despite
these interconnected threats to life and hope, God’s creative
work continues. Despite the ways we all contribute to these problems,
God still invites each one of us to participate in the work of renewal.
We must begin the work of renewing creation by being renewed in our
own hearts and minds. We cannot help the world until we change our
way of being in it.
In preparation
for this Letter and the accompanying Foundation Document, we, the bishops,
have listened to thousands of United Methodists around the world. You
have asked us to lead with concrete actions; raise awareness; and offer
a word of hope to ease our grief, guilt, and concern. Because you informed
the substance of this letter, we invite you to participate in its reading
by joining in the lament, confession, and pledges herein. The differences
among us are great, but we share a common concern and a common call.
We all feel saddened by the state of the world, overwhelmed by the
scope of these problems, and anxious about the future, but God calls
us and equips us to respond. No matter how bad things are, God’s
creative work continues. Christ’s resurrection assures us that
death and destruction do not have the last word. Paul taught that through
Jesus Christ, God offers redemption to all of creation and reconciles
all things, “whether on earth or in heaven” (Colossians
1:20, ii). God’s Spirit is always and everywhere at work in
the world fighting poverty, restoring health, renewing creation, and
reconciling
peoples.
Aware of
God’s vision for creation, we no longer see a list of isolated
problems affecting disconnected people, plants, and animals. Rather,
we see one interconnected system that is “groaning in travail” (Romans
8:22 RSV). The threats to peace, people, and planet earth are related
to one another, and God’s vision encompasses complete well-being.
We, your bishops, join with many global religious leaders to call for
a comprehensive response to these interrelated issues. We urge all
United Methodists and people of goodwill to offer themselves as instruments
of God’s renewing Spirit in the world.
We cannot
be instruments of God’s renewing Spirit in the world if we continue
to deny the wounds of creation. Therefore, let us join in a lament
for God’s people and planet: (iii)
Leader:
We see waters polluted, species destroyed, forests ablaze, and land
abused. We see weapons and waste littering the earth. We see people,
created in the very image of God, suffering from famine and disease,
burying their children, and living in hatred and fear. We know the
farmers who cannot plant their fields because they are infested by
land mines. We know the nations that build weapons of mass destruction
and make plans to use them in the vain pursuit of security.
People:
We lament the wounds on our beautiful planet.
Leader:
We see people overwhelmed by fear and anxiety; people who find the
wounds of the world too deep to address; people who see the challenges
to health and well-being for all as too great to overcome. We know
the workers who can no longer provide for their families, and the activists
exhausted by the struggle for justice.
People:
We grieve for our world, filled with pain.
Leader:
We see communities without basic health care and clean water; communities
stripped of natural resources and denied access to land; communities
torn apart by intolerance, religious extremism and ethnic hatred. We
know the refugee who risks death and capture searching for a safe place
to live.
People:
We weep for communities in crisis.
Leader:
We see a world where some live opulently while others barely survive;
a world where the innocent suffer and the corrupt profit; a world where
too many still find their opportunities and freedom limited by skin
color, gender, or birthplace. We know the boy who is caught in the
snare of drugs and violence and the girl who is raped or forced into
prostitution.
People:
We mourn a world of inequality and injustice.
Leader:
God sees the creation’s wounds. God hears our lament. And God
calls us to accountability. We cannot be instruments of God’s
renewal if we deny our complicity in pandemic poverty and disease,
environmental degradation, and proliferation of weapons and violence.
Pastor:
We, the Bishops of The United Methodist Church, confess our failure
to lead our members to care for God’s planet and people. We do
not always maintain the bond and balance between personal and social
holiness that marks our Wesleyan heritage. We sometimes focus on internal
church matters and neglect creation’s daunting needs. We allow
concerns about agreement and church growth to stifle our prophetic
voice. We do not consistently provide the courageous leadership for
peace and justice requested by our people. And too often we overlook
expertise and gifts for leadership among our people.
We ask
now that you join us in common confession, saying together:
All: As
United Methodists, we confess our failure to embody the image of God.
We rationalize our sin, satisfy our own desires, and exercise our freedom
at the expense of the common good. We know that we should live within
sustainable boundaries, but we struggle to summon the moral will to
change.iv As individuals and communities of faith, we have not been
the stewards and caretakers that God created us to be.
Pastor:
As your bishops, we encourage you to find solace and strength in the
knowledge that God’s creative work continues. This gracious and
loving God still calls us forth and prepares us to care for one another
and the planet. With John Wesley, let us all affirm the “unceasing
presence of God, the loving, pardoning God, manifested to the heart,
and perceived by faith,” and turn to God offering “up all
the thoughts of our hearts, all the words of our tongues, and all the
works of our hands, all our body, soul, and spirit, to be an holy sacrifice,
acceptable unto God in Christ Jesus.”v We pray for the wisdom
and courage to change the ways we live and work, relate to one another
and the earth, and allow our nations to be governed. Through God’s
grace, we renew our minds, reorient our wills, and recommit ourselves
to faithful discipleship as instruments of God’s renewing Spirit.
We rededicate ourselves faithfully to follow the One who came into
the world to reconcile us to God and to one another.
In that
spirit of rededication, we offer three general recommendations and
nine particular pledges.
First, let us orient our lives toward God’s holy vision. This vision
of the future calls us to hope and to action. “For surely I know the
plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm,
to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Christ’s resurrection
assures us that this vision is indeed a promise of renewal and reconciliation.
As disciples of Christ, we take God’s promise as the purpose for our
lives. Let us, then, rededicate ourselves to God’s holy vision, living
each day with awareness of the future that God extends to us and of the Spirit
that leads us onward.
Second,
let us practice social and environmental holiness. We believe personal
holiness and social holiness must never be separated. John Wesley preached: “The
gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social. No holiness but
social holiness.”vi Through social holiness we make ourselves
channels of God’s blessing in the world. Because God’s
blessing, care, and promise of renewal extend to all of creation, we
can speak today of “environmental holiness” as well. We
practice social and environmental holiness by caring for God’s
people and God’s planet and by 6 Pastoral Letter in Liturgical
Setting/English, adopted November 3, 2009 at Lake Junaluska, NC, USA.
challenging those whose policies and practices neglect the poor, exploit
the weak, hasten global warming, and produce more weapons.
Third,
let us live and act in hope. As people in the tradition of John Wesley,
we understand reconciliation and renewal to be part of the process
of salvation that is already underway. We are not hemmed in to a fallen
world. Rather we are part of a divine unfolding process to which we
must contribute. As we faithfully respond to God’s grace and
call to action, the Holy Spirit guides us in this renewal. With a resurrection
spirit, we look forward to the renewal of the whole creation and commit
ourselves to that vision. We pray that God will accept and use our
lives and resources that we rededicate to a ministry of peace, justice,
and hope to overcome poverty and disease, environmental degradation,
and the proliferation of weapons and violence.
With
God’s
help and with you as our witnesses—
1. We
as your bishops pledge to answer God’s call to deepen our spiritual
consciousness as just stewards of creation. We commit ourselves to faithful
and effective leadership on these issues, in our denomination and in our
communities and nations.
2. We pledge to make God’s vision of renewal our goal.
With every evaluation and decision, we will ask: Does this contribute
to God’s renewal of creation?
Ever aware of the difference between what is and what must be, we pledge
to practice Wesleyan “holy dissatisfaction.” (vii)
3. We pledge to practice dialogue with those whose life experience
differs dramatically from our own, and we pledge to practice prayerful
self-examination.
For example, in the 7 Pastoral Letter in Liturgical Setting/English, adopted
November 3, 2009 at Lake Junaluska, NC, USA. Council of Bishops, the fifty
active bishops in the United States are committed to listening and learning
with the nineteen active bishops in Africa, Asia, and Europe. And the bishops
representing the conferences in the United States will prayerfully examine
the fact that their nation consumes more than its fair share of the world’s
resources, generates the most waste, and produces the most weapons.
4. We pledge ourselves to make common cause with religious leaders
and people of goodwill worldwide who share these concerns. We will connect
and collaborate
with ecumenical and interreligious partners and with community and faith
organizations so that we may strengthen our common efforts.
5. We pledge to advocate for justice and peace in the halls of power
in our respective nations and international organizations.
6. We pledge to measure the “carbon footprint” (viii)
of our episcopal and denominational offices, determine how to reduce
it,
and implement those
changes. We will urge our congregations, schools, and settings of ministry
to do the same.
7. We pledge, to the best of our ability, to provide the resources
needed by our conferences to reduce dramatically our collective exploitation
of
the planet,
peoples, and communities, including technical assistance with buildings
and programs; education and training; and young people’s and online networking
resources.
8. We pledge to practice hope as we engage and continue supporting
the many transforming ministries of our denomination. Every day we will thank God
for fruit produced through the work of The United Methodist Church and through
each of you.
9. We pledge more effective use of church and community Web pages
to inspire and to share what we learn. (ix) We celebrate the communications
efforts that tell the stories of struggle and transformation within our
denomination.
With
these pledges, we respond to God’s gracious invitation to join in
the process of renewal. God is already visibly at work in people and groups
around the world. We rededicate ourselves to join these movements, the movements
of the Spirit. Young people are passionately raising funds to provide mosquito
nets for their “siblings” thousands of miles away. Dock workers
are refusing to off-load small weapons being smuggled to armed combatants in
civil wars on their continents. People of faith are demanding land reform on
behalf of landless farm workers. Children and young people have formed church-wide “green
teams” to transform our buildings and ministries into testimonies of
stewardship and sustainability. Ecumenical and interreligious partners persist
in demanding the major nuclear powers to reduce their arsenals, step by verifiable
step, making a way to a more secure world totally disarmed of nuclear weapons.
God is already doing a new thing. With this Letter and the accompanying Foundation
Document, we rededicate ourselves to participate in God’s work,
and we urge you all to rededicate yourselves as well.
We beseech
every United Methodist, every congregation, and every public leader:
Will you participate in God’s renewing work? We are filled with
hope for what God can accomplish through us, and we pray you respond
after each question: “We will, with God’s help!”
Leader:
Will you live and act in hope?
People:
We will, with God’s help!
Leader:
Will you practice social and environmental holiness?
People:
We will, with God’s help! Leader: Will you learn from one another
and prayerfully examine your lives?
People:
We will, with God’s help!
Leader:
Will you order your lives toward God’s holy vision of renewal?
People:
We will, with God’s help!
Leader:
With God’s good creation imperiled by poverty and disease, environmental
degradation, and weapons and violence, will you offer yourselves as
instruments of God’s renewing work in the world?
People:
We will, with God’s help!
Pastor:
May God’s grace purify our reason, strengthen our will, and guide
our action. May the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power
of the Holy Spirit be among you, everywhere and always, so that you
may be a blessing to all creation and to all the children of God, making
peace, nurturing and practicing hope, choosing life and coming to life
eternal. Amen.
The 2004
General Conference of The United Methodist Church called for the Council
of Bishops to publish new documents and a study guide similar to the
Council’s landmark call in 1986, In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear
Crisis and a Just Peace. This is the Council’s response to the General
Conference action (The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church
2004: “Replace
In Defense of Creation with new Document and Study Guide”).
NOTES
i In 2002, the Reverend Dr. William Sloane Coffin, referring to a trio of political
threats, said, “A more likely and far more dangerous trio would be
environmental degradation, pandemic poverty, and a world awash with weapons” (The
Chautauqua Appeal, with Joan Brown Campbell and Stephen J. Sidorak, Jr.).
ii Scriptural
references unless otherwise noted are from the New Revised Standard
Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education
of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States
of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptural references
marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright
1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of
America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
iii This Lament is offered as a responsive reading. The “pastor” is
the voice of the bishops throughout the letter; the “leader” is
another person who directs the lament; and the “people,” all those
gathered together.
iv From Hope in God’s Future, a report of the British Methodist Church
Conference on Christian Discipleship in the Context of Climate Change, July
2009, Wolverhampton, UK.
v John
Wesley, Sermon 19: “The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born
of God,” Works, 1:442.
vi Hymns
and Sacred Poems, 1739, ¶ 5.
vii “When
. . . Christian perfection becomes the goal, a fundamental hope is
aroused that the future can surpass the present. And a corresponding
holy dissatisfaction is aroused with regard to any present state of
affairs—a dissatisfaction that supplies the critical edge necessary
to keep the process of individual transformation moving. Moreover,
this holy dissatisfaction is readily transferable from the realm of
the individual to that of society, where it provides a persistent motivation
for reform in the light of ‘a more perfect way’ that goes
beyond any status quo” Theodore Runyon, The New Creation: John
Wesley’s Theology Today [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998], p.
168).
viii A “carbon
footprint” is an estimate of how much carbon dioxide (a greenhouse
gas) is produced to support life activities including travel and home
energy use. Carbon footprints are also applied on a larger scale to
companies, businesses, and nations.
ix In support
of the many persons who have followed this project of the Council,
an interactive multimedia Web site will have resources, educational
materials, downloadable video clips, and social networking: www.HopeAndAction.org.
Methodist Church