wfn.org | Dieter Hessel calls for Ecological Reformation

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Note #6081 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

30-June-2000
GA00127

	Dieter Hessel calls for Ecological Reformation

	Presbyterians for Restoring Creation celebrate 10th anniversary

	by Midge Mack

LONG BEACH, June 29 - "Ask of the animals or the birds of the air, and they
will tell you; Speak to the earth and it will teach you."  Job 12:7

	Is it ecological theology or theological ecology? The two are not often
discussed together, but should be and must be in the future in the eyes of
Presbyterians for Restoring Creation.

	 Lunching together 168 strong last Tuesday, in celebration of their 10th
anniversary,  supporters of  the association  first honored, then listened
carefully to Dieter Hessel, who is director of Ecology, Justice and Faith,
editor of "Eco-Justice and Theology" and "Theology for Earth Community."
Hessel formerly served the PC(USA) as staff for the Committee on Social
Witness Policy which prepared the policy statement on Restoring Creation for
the 1990 General Assembly.

	The organization first recognized two local congregations, the Solana Beach
Church and St. Mark Church in Newport, for extensive environmental efforts.
It then presented Hessel with the fourth  annual Bill Gibson service award
for outstanding work in his field, with the citation "No Presbyterian has
done more to make eco-justice central to the life of the church."

	After describing  his current projects,  Program on Ecology, Justice and
Faith, and Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge, 
Hessel led his audience to understand that an ecological reformation  is
mandated  "as the world gets hotter, stormier, more crowded and violent,
less bio-diverse."

	He called for a different approach to Bible reading, preferably the Yahwist
version "beginning with primal humans in the Garden and climaxing in God's
inclusive covenant with 'every living creature'... a view of humans as earth
creatures who share the same Creator's breath as do the other animals."
	
	He asked that the church rethink the "dominion" of Genesis 1,  by ceasing
to focus on human conquest of nature and reorienting us toward kinship with
fellow humans and other creatures,  "(something we can learn from indigenous
peoples)."  This can lead, Hessel  stated,  to  achieving a sustainable
human-earth relationship theologically. "We need both 'books,' Scripture and
nature. The natural world and human experience within creation also have
revelatory power," he said.

	Participants in a ecological reformation will "restate basic doctrinal
themes, and thereby give up some bad habits: e.g. separating God's activity
into a realm of history apart from nature.

	"Ecological reformation features a spirit and fosters an ethos that
redefines human vocation." Hessel continued. "Right-relatedness, earthly
virtues and action for the good of all life become the focus of
faithfulness.  A reformation for the sake of eco-justice produces fresh
understanding of the church's role in ecumenical earth, responsive to what
God does as Creator, Christ and Spirit. Our priority will be
God-World-Church, not God-Church-World."

	Hessel concluded "Ecological reformation will spread as Christian mission, 
public worship,  spiritual development, lay education, daily work and social
action refocus on the well-being of the whole creation, all of us together."

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