wfn.org | Episcopalians join protest against drilling in Arctic refuge

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2001-112

Episcopalians join protest against drilling in Arctic refuge

by Jan Nunley and Jerry Hames
jnunley@episcopalchurch.org
jhames@episcopalchurch.org

     (ENS) Three Episcopal priests were among 22 religious activists arrested on 
May 3 at the Department of Energy building in Washington, D.C. during a public 
protest of the Bush administration's energy policy and its support for oil 
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

     The demonstration culminated two days of meetings and lobbying on Capitol 
Hill. Police moved in as the protestors stood or knelt in prayer at the entrance 
of the federal building after a public service that drew about 150 supporters 
from as far as California and Alaska.

     The Rev. Sally Bingham of San Francisco, the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas of 
Watertown, Massachusetts, and the Rev. Robert Massie of Somerville, Massachusetts 
were among those who were handcuffed and taken into police custody. They each 
paid a $50 fine after being detained from 12 to 16 hours in jail.

     Bullitt-Jonas said her decision to participate in the demonstration came 
from a conviction that she needed to bear witness to the environmental crisis and 
global climate change. "It came during Holy Week as I was praying through the 
vigil, arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus," she said. She said 
she wanted to witness against today's "greedy mindset that the earth is ours to 
devour."

     Like 17 others in the group of 22, it was the first time she had been 
arrested.

     Bingham, who wore vestments decorated with a depiction of wind-generated 
energy, said she and Bullitt-Jones sang hymns in their dark and dirty cell while 
they waited for release.

     "Ours was only an inkling of what people go through when their dignity is 
insulted, but our lives will be changed because of it. No one will ever accuse me 
of not standing up for what I believe in," said Bingham, one of the founders of 
Episcopal Power and Light, an energy conservation organization.

     A few protesters wore T-shirts that said "Religious Witness for the Earth," 
the name of the organization that organized the protest. 

     Religious Witness for the Earth describes itself as "an independent network 
of religious and spiritual people from diverse faith traditions dedicated to 
public witness in defense of God's creation."

     In February, the group issued "A Call to Religious Witness for the Arctic 
Refuge," which declared that ANWR "must be forever protected as a sacred place 
for the Gwich'in, a haven for wildlife, and a cathedral for the human spirit to 
glory in God's handiwork. To drill for oil there would be a sacrilege." 

     "Every religious tradition teaches us to hold sacred the wonders of 
creation, yet wantonly we desecrate them," the declaration says. "Every religious 
tradition cautions us to temper our cravings for sensation and material things, 
yet we pursue them addictively, vainly hoping to fill our spiritual emptiness. 
Every religious tradition forbids theft, yet every day we live unsustainably, we 
steal from our children and our children's children. 

     "Throughout the world, poor and working people, and especially people of 
color, are pollution's first victims. When we see the earth and its creatures 
wounded, we cannot pass by on the other side."

     Episcopalian signers of the Call include Bingham, who chairs the Commission 
for the Environment in the Diocese of California; Kwok Pui Lan, professor of 
theology and spirituality, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; 
Massie, who is executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally 
Responsible Economies (CERES); Bishop Mark MacDonald of the Diocese of Alaska; 
and Jonathon Solomon, chair of the Gwich'in Steering Committee in Alaska. 

     Since the declaration was first released, the Bush administration reversed a 
previous commitment to regulate carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, withdrew the 
United States from international discussion of the Kyoto agreement on global 
climate change, cut energy conservation programs, and pressed for accelerated 
development of fossil fuels in ANWR and in a broad range of other public lands. 

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service. Jerry Hames 
is editor of Episcopal Life.