[This is Part 2 of thoughts coming from my recent visit to the Philippines.  Part 1 is here.]

I’ve been working in the field of environmental stewardship for almost 10 years, and have been presenting the Our Father’s World seminar material in various forms for close to three.  We’ve been in half a dozen states and will be adding several more in the coming year.  The normal subtitle to the seminar is “Why Christians Should Care about the Environmental Crisis”.  It has always seemed to me that this is straight forward enough, given that that is what we’re talking about.  No one who has been to the seminar can or does question the reality:  There is a crisis, it’s real and it’s happening now. Read more »

My recent experience of presenting the Our Father’s World seminar material in Manila, Philippines, triggered the following thoughts…

There is a story – a parable, really – that I use at the end of my Our Father’s World seminar presentations.  It goes something like this:

Let’s pretend that we’re on a refugee ship of some kind.  We’re part of a Christian ministry, and we’re taking a ship load of refugees to a new land, where they can start their lives over again.  The ship is crowded, and we have a lot of work to do to care for the passengers and to keep things running smoothly during the three week voyage. Read more »

The Philippines recently experienced a major typhoon and massive flooding of the capital city, Manila.  Here’s a first hand report from Melba Padilla Maggay, who is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Asian and Church Culture (ISACC) the organization that will be hosting my visit to Manila at the beginning of November.  I’m posting this with her permission, and asking that you please both read it prayerfully and, particularly if you have connections to Filipinos, that you distribute it so others will understand what has happened.  The recovery will take a long time – keep these sisters and brothers in your prayers.

Read more »

We occasionally receive comments through the Care of Creation website ‘contact us’ form wondering exactly what it is we’re talking about.  Some of these comments come from, um, cranks – but others are thoughtful and sincerely questioning.  Environmental stewardship as a central part of Christian ministry is new for a lot of people, and a comment that come through today was in that vein.

A couple of the things our inquirer said:

I have to ask just what is “environmental sin”? If Jesus had wanted this to be our “ministry” wouldn’t He have stated it?  …Do you believe that we can do nothing to stop the “groaning” of creation which is under the curse of sin? …I can definitely see the need to couple the gospel with compassion but to couple it with saving a planet that God says will eventually be destroyed by Him seems…er impractical at best.

I responded as below.  Those of you who have read my book or heard me speak will recognize that this is essentially what I’ve been writing and preaching for at least the last 10 years or so… Read more »

Great Nurse Shark - (Flickr Creative Commons License)

As you can imagine, my job has me reading a lot of disturbing reports about all aspects of the environmental crisis.  Though I do my best to keep things upbeat here on Our Father’s World and in my presentations, sometimes a story will sneak  up and grab me from behind.

Like this one:

In Canada, scientists said Atlantic cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are becoming skinny because they are having more trouble finding reliable sources of small prey like capelin. In Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, striped bass are turning up emaciated because of shrinking supplies of herring and anchovies. Read more »

A good friend, who doesn’t think himself an intellectual but who in fact is one of the best-read people in my life, sent me two different pieces over the last couple of months, both of which qualify as being old, if not ancient.  But which both speak volumes to our present environmental predicament:

Today, a poem that is at least 150 years old:

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge |&| shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

Read more »