wfn.org | UCC - Holy Water: Calling attention to water justice

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UCC - Holy Water: Calling attention to water justice

> Written by Micki Carter
> June 26, 2009

George Heartwell, the mayor of Grand Rapids, Mich., who happens to be
an ordained United Church of Christ minister, spoke quietly Thursday
morning in a wing chair in a parlor of the East Congregational Church
in Grand Rapids, where he is a member.

He talked about taking a "watershed" approach to the environmental
issues facing UCC congregations across the country.

"I was a few minutes late this morning because I met earlier with a
group from four Christian Reformed churches in the Plaster Creek
watershed that feeds into the Grand River," he said. "This is the same
approach that I saw at work in New Zealand where all the people
affected by one water source work together to solve the problems of
that watershed."

Heartwell was the keynote speaker at "Holy Water: A Conference on
Environment and Faith" presented by the UCC's Justice and Witness
Ministry's Environment and Energy Task Force as a pre-Synod event on
the day before the opening of General Synod 27 in Grand Rapids.

About 25 Synod delegates and visitors gathered to talk about the role
of water, holy water, in environmental justice, and Heartwell's focus
was on the water roiling along next to the Synod hotels, the Grand
River which spills into Lake Michigan at Grand Haven.

"The banks of the Grand River once were a gathering spot for three
Native American tribes? the Ottawa, the Ojibwe and the Potawatomi, but
soon after Europeans arrived, the abuse of the river began," Heartwell
said. "Rows of factories lined the banks dumping toxic effluent into
the river. We even had a municipal dump on an island in the middle of
the river.

"In our most shameful year, 12 billion tons of raw sewage was dumped
in the Grand River and then into Lake Michigan. Now I'm pleased to say
that we put just .04 percent of that into the river but, of course,
that's still too much."

The mayor would like to go even further in restoring the river. "I'm
looking forward to removing the dam and the fish ladder and returning
the rapids."

Heartwell made the point that environmental issues cannot be separated
from the economy or social justice. "That's the triple bottom line."

He described one zip code area in Grand Rapids  ? ironically just off
Wealthy Street ? where one in every three children suffered from the
effects of lead poisoning when he took office in 2004. He helped
gather a "Get the Lead Out!" coalition to work on remediation.

"This was an environmental issue with economic consequences," he said,
adding that because the area was predominantly African-American and
Latino, this was a case of environmental racism.

"I like to spread the gospel of sustainability," Heartwell said,
adding that UCC congregations are well-poised to succeed in this
effort. "We've figured out how to do the work of mercy pretty well."