You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To ensure continued delivery, please add newsservice@pcusa.org to your address book or safe senders list.
========================================
This story may be seen here:
www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08300.htm<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08300. htm
08300 April 18, 2008
PC(USA), NCC leaders to join in Earth Day ceremony
Presbyterians are first denomination to consider new Social Creed
by Jerry L. Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) will share leadership of a worship service at the Presbyterian Center here April 22 to mark Earth Day and celebrate the ecological vision contained in the new ecumenical Social Creed for the 21st Century.
The service will include the planting of tree - presented to Kirkpatrick by Kinnamon - on the grounds of the Presbyterian Center to symbolize the leadership taken by the PC(USA) in the development of the new social creed.
The Social Creed is a one-page statement of social ethics modeled on and recalling the "Social Creed of the Churches" of 1908. The new Social Creed not only celebrates that earlier influential statement - which focused primarily on working conditions and workers rights in the wake of the industrial revolution - but broadens its economic concerns to include a major concern for environmental sustainability.
The PC(USA) will be the first NCC member communion to act on the Social Creed when the upcoming 218th General Assembly considers it during the June 21-28 gathering in San Jose, CA.
The NCC General Assembly, comprised of representatives of the ecumenical grouping's 36 member churches, unanimously endorsed it last November.
A Presbyterian study team helped draft the new Social Creed under the aegis of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), with complementary work done by a team within the NCC that Kinnamon chaired before his election as NCC general secretary. The United Methodist Church has developed a lyrical version of the creed that can be put to music.
Globalization of the world's economy and the need for wiser energy use in the face of global warming are the overarching themes in the new Social Creed.
Endorsing churches pledge to be "stewards of God's good creation, by working for:
"Adoption of simpler lifestyles by those who have enough and grace over greed in economic life"; "Access for all to clean air and water and healthy food, through wise care of land and technology"; and "Sustainable use of earth's resources, promoting alternative energy sources and public transportation with binding covenants to reduce global warming and protect populations most affected." The creed calls not only for ecological commitment in the form of basic policy directions, but also for a change of ethos by the churches. "We - individual Christians and churches - commit ourselves to a culture of peace and freedom that embraces non-violence, nurtures character, treasures the environment, and builds community, rooted in a spirituality of inner growth with outward action," the document states.
Kinnamon acknowledged that the new Social Creed is idealistic but insisted that "we can say that society's goalposts have been moving in the wrong direction for too long. Now the churches want to reset our expectations for the social order. Frankly, as human beings, we have to recognize that we are on the same team. This Social Creed is a kind of game plan for doing just that."
Kirkpatrick agreed and said interconnected environmental, energy, and economic challenges have changed the equation for global sustainability.
"We see our Christian faith as an essential source of hope in helping humanity make the hard transition to a sustainable future," he said. "It may sound idealistic, but a real cultural conversion of values is needed and the churches are naming what needs to be done. The new Social Creed is a concise statement of what we stand for at this great turning point."
At the Earth Day service, ACSWP chair B. Gordon Edwards will present both Kinnamon and Kirkpatrick with copies of a new book: Prayers for the New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed.
========================================
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228