wfn.org | Episcopalians: Congressional trip to Arctic Refuge includes Episcopal presence

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

July 3, 2003

2003-155

Episcopalians: Congressional trip to Arctic Refuge includes 
Episcopal presence

by Jan Nunley and John Johnson

(ENS) As the U.S. Congress begins its July 4th recess, several 
members are taking time to participate in a Congressional 
Delegation (CODEL) fact-finding trip to the Alaska National 
Wildlife Refuge.  While this is not the first CODEL to the 
Arctic, it will be the first such trip that includes a 
representative of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government 
Relations.

"It is a tremendous opportunity for the Episcopal Church to be 
invited to participate in this CODEL," said John B. Johnson, who 
represents the Episcopal Church as a domestic policy analyst in 
Washington, D.C.  "More than 150 years ago the church brought 
Christianity to an indigenous people and today we are partners 
in trying to protect a way of life for the Gwich'in from the 
effects of proposed drilling for oil and gas on the calving 
grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd."

Episcopal missionaries established a presence in the 19th 
century among the Gwich'in Nation near Fort Yukon, Alaska. Today 
nearly all of the Gwich'in are Episcopalians.  The Gwich'in, 
until more modern times, were a migratory people throughout what 
is now the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  They still practice 
a subsistence culture, living from and caring for the Porcupine 
caribou herd as mainstay of their diet, life and ancient ways.	
The Gwich'in have lived in this area of Alaska for 10,000 years.

"Congress has repeatedly defeated attempts to open the Arctic 
for drilling.  The Office of Government Relations has worked 
with religious and secular partners to protect the reserve," 
said Johnson. "I believe seeing first hand both the people and 
the land affected by potential drilling will add to the 
credibility the Episcopal Church has in working to defend the 
sacred spaces of the Gwich'in."

The four-day trek across the largest state will take members of 
Congress and staff to Arctic Village, Alaska, over the Brooks 
Range, into the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and even to 
Prudhoe Bay and the oil fields of that area.  The CODEL will 
also camp under the "midnight sun" of Alaska, offering 
participants an opportunity to see up close a vast and remote 
wilderness where wildlife thrives and from which a rich 
indigenous culture is derived.

"I believe that when members [of Congress] and staff spend time 
with the Gwich'in in their own villages and hear from biologists 
about the impact current drilling and exploration has on the 
land, they will recognize how real the threat to culture is to a 
people who only want to live a simple way of life," said 
Johnson.  "Episcopalians know the values of a conservation-based 
energy policy.	The exploitation of another culture to feed our 
nation's gluttonous demand of precious oil is simply not part of 
our values."

The General Convention, Executive Council and the House of 
Bishops have all passed numerous resolutions calling for the 
protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and support 
for the Gwich'in.  This is Johnson's first trip to the Arctic 
and he will chronicle the visit, sponsored by the Wilderness 
Society, Alaska Wilderness League, Alaska Coalition, the Natural 
Resources Defense Council, the National Audubon Society and the 
Sierra Club.

------

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service. John Johnson is domestic policy analyst for the 
Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.