Stewardship: What Does it Mean for Us and for God's Creation?

Linda Rimer, Environmental Stewardship Committee Chair

By now, most of us are pretty familiar with the concept of stewardship. In case you want to see a formal definition, here is one for you to consider: “The conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.”

Certainly our Church and our parish deserve our best stewardship efforts, and our faith demands such. But what about our planet, Earth? God made the earth. The Psalmist tells us “the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). We are part of the created order, not separate from it; and our first calling by God is to be the caretakers of creation (Genesis 2:4b-8, 15). In Genesis 1:31 we read: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

In a previous article in Cross Roads, the Environmental Stewardship Committee asked you to consider whether God would say that about His creation in 2003. In fact, our current body of science is telling us that our earth is in trouble. Bad air quality has aggravated the asthma epidemic that is occurring in our state and in our country. Thirty plus years of environmental regulation of large industrial and municipal discharge pipes have led to major improvements in water quality, but increasingly, non-point sources of water pollution, e.g., from storm water run-off and air deposition, are polluting our water resources in ways we never imagined. Our patterns of urbanization are destroying habitat and reducing the biodiversity of plants and animals that share our environment with us. And in 2003, the debate about global climate change has moved on from “whether or not it is happening” to “how fast is it happening” and “what can we do about it?”

Beginning with the November issue of Cross Roads, the Environmental Stewardship Committee will be bringing you information about the state of our environment and suggestions for what you can do to become a better steward of God's creation. Individual actions are important. Multiple times each day, every one of us makes decisions that either help or hurt our environment. As the Very Rev. James Parks Morton, former Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, wrote, “The challenge before the religious community in America is to make every congregation — every church, synagogue and mosque — truly 'green' — a center of environmental study and action. That is their religious duty.”

We are looking forward to learning together and becoming better stewards of God's creation.