Creation Care More Than Recycling: What My Household & I Can Do
Becoming an advocate for Creation Care is not merely a factor of one or two elements. Just as it is with most matters of faith, it emerges and evolves in response to God’s Love and Grace through a variety of means - personal, familial, church, community, and beyond. There is so much more each of us can do than recycle! This Creation Care article provides ideas for you and your family/ household to internalize Creation Care discipleship and response in the name of Christ.
Meditation & Prayer
Saunter. “What?” you ask. The word “saunter” implies more than “a leisurely stroll”. It is derived from a French word, “santren”, meaning “to muse, to wonder.” Although the origin of this word is unclear, some say it comes from “sainte terre'', French for “holy earth”. When I saunter, I quietly, meditatively and slowly walk with all senses and heart open to the Earth around me, allowing God’s voice to be heard. For a change of setting, set out on a saunter in one of the land trusts and conservancies noted below.
If reading is a spiritual practice you prefer, I highly recommend any titles from H. Paul Santmire. For starters, try Before Nature: A Christian Spirituality1 and Behold the Lilies: Jesus and the Contemplation of Nature - A Primer2. Santmire, a well-respected Lutheran theologian, personably invites readers into a theological/spiritual journey and a prayerful/contemplative knowledge of the Triune God, in which practitioners are inducted into a bountiful relationship with the cosmic ministry of Christ and the Spirit uniting all of nature in a single vision of hope and anticipation. In these books Santmire continues the pursuit of a theology bound up with nature and its condition, especially the fragility and fervent expectation of nature’s redemption.
Find a Psalm you like that includes multiple “nature” items. Then gather others in your family/household and tell them they’re going to “make a video in their mind” by imagining video pictures based on the words you read to them with their eyes closed. Slowly read the Psalm and ask each to describe their video after your finished reading (this especially works well with younger children). Another of my favorite Psalm activities is to slowly read Psalm 104 - another Biblical account of creation - while listening to Aaron Copland’s musical composition Appalachian Spring. Both follow similar story lines, that is, following spring water in the mountains as it grows into a river and finally in the ocean, providing life for plants, animals and humans along the way.
You can also google “nature as a key to Christian spirituality” and find many choices for reading, listening and viewing.
Home Stewardship
Although recycling is on the decline,3 we still can accomplish much at home by reusing, repurposing and reducing plastic, metal, and glass waste. Be creative and have fun!
There are many other consumer actions your household can take, such as those described in three HTELC Library books, 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth, Green Living and The Green Consumer.
Don’t forget about buying in bulk (food and household products). The higher expenses of natural foods may be reduced by cooperating with neighbors and friends. Here are some outlets in our area: Dover Natural Foods, Dover Market & Cafe at Emery Farm, Durham Summit Natural Foods, Exeter Hampton Natural Foods, Hampton New Morning Natural Foods, Kennebunk Golden Harvest Produce Market, Kittery Rising Tide Natural Foods, Kittery The Spice & Tea Exchange, Portsmouth Whole Foods Market, Newington.
Filleries are also not to be forgotten. Here you buy household products, but the products are put into your own reusable containers. The distributors in our area are:
We Fill Good, Kittery
The Refill Station, Portsmouth
Leave No Trace Refillery, Portsmouth & Seacoast (only shop online with delivery).
Also to be considered are efficient appliances (Energy Star) and home solar energy, often with incentives or rebates. See the vendors and your energy providers for the details.
Together in Play, Advocacy and Volunteering
There’s something uniquely exciting about experiencing nature in community. Regardless of who you are, there are many groups and opportunities in our area for outdoor recreation (“play”), environmental advocacy and conservation volunteering. Most of the following offer at least two of those experience types and all of them provide online information.
Appalachian Mountain Club - NH and ME Chapters
Sierra Club - NH and ME Groups
Meet-Up Groups - join online
Great Bay Coalition
Audubon Society - VT Centers in VT, ME and CT
New Hampshire Rivers Council
Maine Rivers
Gay Outdoors
Land Trusts & Conservancies - Of the 117 in NH and ME, these are in our area:
Southeast Land Trust of NH
Bear-Paw Regional Greenways
Howfirma Trust
York Land Trust
Kittery Land Trust
Great Works Regional Land Trust
Society for the Protection of NH Forests
Individuals and families can also join and support the likes of the Appalachian Mountain Club (national) Sierra Club (national) Wilderness Society Environmental Defence Fund National Resources Defense Council Ocean Conservancy Greenpeace EarthJustice
At HTELC
At church, we regularly experience the intersection of nature and faith in worship. Not a worship service goes by without bonds to nature in scripture, prayers and/or hymns. Nature imagery is also used in faith formation and Bible study to clarify our faith, grace, love and Christian community.
In the coming months our church will form a “Green Team'' to explore if and how HTELC can become a “green church.” More information will be in the next and final Creation Care article. Until then, please contact this article’s author (below) if you or a family member have interest in this “Green Team.”
Faith-Based Resources for Individuals and Households
There are a variety of books in our HTELC Library. The following resources are only available online and are a great start for you and yours to discover more about creation care.
Lutherans Restoring Creation. https://lutheransrestoringcreation.org/ LRC is a grassroots movement promoting care for creation in the ELCA. They cultivate a community of dedicated stewards of the earth, proclaiming God’s promise of hope and healing for all and offer good resources for individuals and households on their website.
Web of Creation. https://www.webofcreation.org/ The Web of Creation is maintained by the Lutheran School of Theology/Chicago, is a Christian ecumenical organization and provides environmental resources for people of faith. .
Earth Ministry. https://earthministry.org/ Earth Ministry's website provides extensive resources for all although its work focuses on the Pacific Northwest. Of special interest to individuals and households is that they show the depth of creation care through their faith-based values.
Evangelical Environmental Network. https://creationcare.org/ The EEN seeks to equip, inspire, disciple, and mobilize God's people in their effort to care for God's creation.
Interfaith Power and Light. https://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/ IP&L mobilizes religious responses to global warming in 39 states, including New England. They focus on tangible results, putting our faith into action through the promotion of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation.
Closing Encouragement
Each of us enter into new understandings and spiritual journeys through different routes. Mine were through unexpected, intersecting encounters in/with meditation, worship, nature, social action, reading, Christian community, teachers, clergy, peers, and outdoor recreation. In my youth, family vacations included new discoveries of God’s Creation. As a young adult my awareness of environmental justice grew and deepened especially through a mentor who used nature as a tool to reveal the Gospel. Through the years and experiences since then, I’m increasingly compelled to act and advocate for justice and the preservation of God’s first gift to us, Creation. I encourage each HTELC participant to absorb God’s Creation by any path so as to be more-fully engaged with the Love and Grace of Christ.
Glenn Oswald
glenncanoe@gmail.com
603-507-7363 (mobile)
1 Augsburg Fortress (2014) 2 Cascade Books (2017). This book is available in the HTELC Library. 3 More-and-more municipalities are not able to truly recycle waste anymore, largely because there’s no market for it, it’s too expensive and/or China is not accepting recyclable waste.