ICJP TASK FORCE, UCC NEER JOIN FORCES
The Central Atlantic Conference ICJP Task Force is the only conference-level group dedicated to justice and peace leadership in the entire UCC. At its meeting on November 19, 1995, the ICJP Task Force discussed its role in the post-ICJP world of the United Church of Christ since General Synod 95. The UCC Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility (NEER) still enjoys recognition by the General Synod, but was unable to inspire national leadership to continue ICJP as a national priority. The continuing resolution brought by Union Church, Montclair, New Jersey, was thrown out on a technicality.
The remains of the National ICJP Working Group, NEER, and the CAC ICJP Task Force plan to work together from now on to keep social justice, peace, and environmental issues on the local, regional, and national agenda of the United Church of Christ. This edition of Elijah's Mantle, the quarterly newsletter published by the CAC ICJP Task Force, is a collaboration of these three groups. Please see the coupon at the end for address and subscription information. We will appreciate your feedback.
FUR AND FEATHER AND SCALE AND SKIN
News From The Sentient World
This Column will be a permanent fixture in upcoming issues of Elijah's Mantle. Submissions of stories about animals, plants, or people are welcome. Please send your stories to Sea Raven, Editor, at the address listed on the last page. Subject matter can include "shaggy cat/dog" stories as well as calls to action or information about animal issues.
I will begin by letting everyone know that there is such a thing as a holistic vet! The Takoma Animal Clinic in Takoma Park, Maryland, offers herbal treatments, acupuncture, house calls, and top notch care. There will soon be a website for a nationwide listing. Meanwhile, look in your yellow pages.
--Sea Raven
NETWORK NEWS
The following information and editorial material is from NEER Internet resources, put together by ICJP Task Force member Doug Hunt.
[Editor's Note: While this Issue of Elijah's Mantle is not likely to be received in time for Earth Day planning, the following Action Alert is pertinent. Upcoming environmentally appropriate post-Earth Days include: Beltane (April 30-May 1), an ancient Fertility and Fire Festival, Islamic New Year (May 19); The Full Moon of June 1; Environmental Sabbath (June 2); Midsummer Eve and the Summer Solstice , also known as "St. John's Eve" (June 19-20); Iroquois Green Corn Festival (June 26); and the Blue Moon - second Full Moon in the month of June (June 30). Any excuse for a Festival, and a reason to tweak the Principalities and Powers!]
50 YEARS EARTH DAY/DEBT ALERT
Also, whether or not you're connected with up-coming events, please act on the suggestions below.
Why Are We Talking about Economics on Earth Day?
International Financial Institutions -- "development banks" owned by the world's governments and controlled by the richest ones -- have a lot more to do with our daily lives and our environment than you might think.
Mega-Corporations, Big Banks and governments, locked in a dizzying race for profits and resources, seek the most "flexible" labor markets (i.e., lowest wages) and the loosest environmental standards so that their profit margins can be as high as possible. The pressure to be "competitive" provides the excuse for communities, both national and local, to listen to those who claim they need to sacrifice the resources and services that societies need to survive -- things like water, food, clean air, health care, education, and jobs that pay a livable wage. This Earth Day, if you're focusing on the challenges facing the environment of the whole Earth, you should be looking at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (World Bank).
The IMF and the World Bank are the dominant forces among international financial institutions, and are headquartered across the street from one another in Washington, D.C. Together, they maintain a financial system that keeps the bulk of the world's wealth in the hands of bankers and corporations while steadily increasing the misery of the poor. The restrictions they impose on poor countries' economies (in exchange for financing their vast and unpayable debt burdens) encourage environmentally destructive practices and financial structures geared to benefitting foreign investors rather than local people.
The measures they insist on have a disproportionate impact on Third World women, who find themselves expected to do more and more work to make up for the reduction in health care, income, water availability, and increased food costs. The World Bank has earned additional notoriety for the devastating impact of many of the monumental infrastructure projects (dams, roads, etc.) it has sponsored in the "Third World." A recent example is last year's accident at a World Bank-sponsored gold mine in Guyana (adjacent to Venezuela): the biggest cyanide spill in history, which has heavily polluted that country's largest river, making it unfit for human use and killing great numbers of fish and wildlife.
The IMF and World Bank keep Third World governments dependent by imposing policy "reforms" called Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), which include currency devaluation, reduced social spending, credit restrictions, opening up to foreign ownership, and more -- basically Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" multiplied by a factor of 10. They can do this because almost all Third World governments have accumulated massive debts, some from projects that never paid for themselves, some that was siphoned off by corrupt leaders, and a great deal that was borrowed to pay the interest on the previous loans.
After years of pressure from grassroots groups, the IMF and World Bank are finally considering a proposal to cancel some of the debt (specifically, that portion owed to the institutions themselves). These debts were largely made in bad faith and used to manipulate the governments of poor countries. Ultimately it is always the poorest people in these countries who pay the highest price. If the governments controlling these institutions would consent to such a plan without imposing more and more conditions on debtor-countries, some of the most impoverished people of the world could take the first step away from the vicious cycle that has made their fate the business of "neo-liberal" economic zealots in Washington for years.
There are complications, of course, some of which are explained in the sample letter that follows. The letter is to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the U.S.'s designated representative to the World Bank and IMF. Since the U.S. has the biggest vote in these institutions, no one has more influence over their policy than Secretary Rubin. The debt plan is being considered April 22-23 in Washington, and probably again at the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations summit in France this summer. Please fax your own version of this letter (or sign the sample itself) to Secretary Rubin at 202/622-2599.
The U.S. 50 Years Is Enough Network, created during the 50th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF in 1994, has lots of information on economics and the environment. Contact us at 1025 Vermont Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20005 202/463-2265 (that's 202/IMF-BANK) e-mail:
Mr. Robert Rubin
Secretary of the Treasury
15th & Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20220
FAX: 202/622-2599
Dear Secretary Rubin:
On the occasion of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, I urge the U.S. Treasury to lead its partners in devising a solution to the multilateral debt problem.
I was heartened by the G-7's resolve to address this problem in Halifax, but have become alarmed at the IMF's resistance to even the insufficient World Bank proposal for a "multilateral debt facility." I urge you to continue to lead this effort at the next G-7 summit in June.
The debt burden costs lives and destroys ecosystems irreparably. Vital resources are drained from development, investment, and basic social services to pay debts. I am outraged that in 1994 war-torn Mozambique and Rwanda were obliged to service their multilateral debt instead of using these resources to reconstruct essential services to the population, and that in Uganda spending on health is around $2.5 per capita, compared with $30 per capita on debt payments. These nations' multilateral debt is particularly damaging because it is not subject to the debt reduction measures that bilateral debt is. Further recourse to concessional loan programs (such as the IMF's ESAF) is inadequate, as it will keep countries in the cycle of debt accumulation and extend their suffering under harsh structural adjustment programs.
I urge you to use your considerable influence to support a solution financed by both the IMF and the World Bank (from their net income and huge reserves, especially the IMF's gold stocks) that is focused on reducing countries' total debt burden to sustainable levels. I also urge that the criteria for making a country eligible for multilateral debt relief not be based upon strict structural adjustment compliance but rather upon the country's debt burden, income level, and commitment to poverty reduction.
Poverty reduction for desperately poor countries is not controversial, but investments in institutions like the World Bank and IMF which insist on strict structural adjustment programs without concern for the impact on the poor should be. Setting up a multilateral debt facility would be one step toward improving these institutions. I urge you to insist on action that will put the U.S. at the forefront of a meaningful effort to eliminate debt, poverty, and environmental destruction around the world.
Sincerely,
On behalf of the Under-Secretary-General, Ms. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, I have the honor to inform you that the theme of World Environment Day (WED) to be commemorated on 5 June 1996 will be: "Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home."
The main international celebration will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, during the Habitat II Conference. We would appreciate it if you could kindly inform your Government of the theme and venue and suggest that World Environment Day celebrations be used to raise public awareness of the environment particularly as they relate to human habitats and the natural environment. Broadly, our agenda is:
. Giving a human face to environmental issues by linking settlements, both urban and rural with environmental concerns;
. Empowering people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; . Promoting an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
. Reinforcing the need for a better understanding of global environmental issues and environmental education;
. Advocating global partnerships that will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
May I take this opportunity to mention that due to budgetary constraints, we will be unable to produce the usual WED information kit. We, however, will have a special edition of Our Planet, with a poster inserted, commemorating the day, which will be distributed to all our partners.
ENVIRONMENTAL EVANGELISM
An Orthodox, Eastern Perspective:Sacramental Earth and Water, Body and Blood
Francis of Assisi provides us with a Western model for Christian sisterhood/brotherhood with our natural surroundings... however the Christian heritage of accord with nature is deep. Viren Guroian, an Armenian Orthodox and professor of theology and ethics at Loyola College in Baltimore, suggests still other sources of inspiration.
For example: in his February 29, 1996 article "The Christian Gardener: An Orthodox meditation" (pp. 228-331) he illuminates the Eastern understanding that Earth and water may also be sacramental and recalls the account of Armenian death marchers during World War I who, on the verge of starvation, took up the soil and swallowed it as communion.
Additionally, acknowledging Christian traditions of "dominion" turned to dominance, he nonetheless cites the warning of the 4th Century "Hymn of Paradise" of "St. Stephen the Syrian," which includes this stanza:
"The fool who is unwilling to realize his honorable state, prefers to become just an animal rather than a man, so that, without incurring judgment, he may serve naught but his lusts."
To raise & sustain an "environmental consciousness" in a large number of American Christians, perhaps it is time to assert a very old radical Christian theology and join arms with a new evangelical movement. "What we need is zeal like those 'evangelicals' in town who are spending and reaching millions to save Noah's Ark!" I heard that sentiment (the words are mine) expressed recently in a Washington D.C. meeting of environmental- & justice-concerned folks. It pointed to the frustration many feel at the (relatively) minimal impact of our efforts and contrasted them to a current million-dollar media campaign aimed at preserving the Endangered Species Act. The group -- the Evangelical Environmental Network -- is acting with appropriate "evangelical zeal" in promoting public service announcements in 18 states.
This movement is being sparked by people familiar to the UCC - activists such as Ron Sider and Calvin DeWitt. The latter, professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has summed up the EEN message: "People in their arrogance are destroying God's Creation, yet Congress and special interests are trying to sink the Noah's Ark of our day -- the Endangered Species Act. Few legislative issues ought to be as clear as this one. Christian faith teaches respect for the works of God, and the Endangered Species Act offers real and fair protection for all His creation including us."
The zeal that DeWitt, Sider, and company may bring (after a long "evangelical" silence in matters environmental) to this issue has been welcomed roundly by other members of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment as well as politicians such as Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. It also challenges us to find our own "evangelical zeal."
"Christian faith teaches respect for the works of God ... " The first step is to overcome our aversion to being evangelical and zealous.
How can we of the more "main-line enlightenment" tradition generate the same sort of simple, enthusiastic and broad appeal? I see two steps. The first would be to overcome our aversion to being evangelical and zealous. Jesus gives us an "evangel" to be boldly shared. The second (which may be a key to the first) is to fully reclaim the 800-year-old theology of Francis of Assisi who combined an abiding respect for the integrity of creation, for justice, and for the evangelical zeal of the Church. After all, it was Francis who long ago saw our enlightenment materialism for what it was: the beginning of the destruction of God's Earthly creation.
He proposed (in the words of medieval historian Lynn White) "an alternative Christian view of nature and man's relations to it: he tried to substitute the idea of man's limitless rule over creation. He failed."
(2) The dominant culture's rejection of Francis' world-view left us looking, to this day, at environmental decay through the eyes of enlightenment science. Even many mainline Christian environmental activists address the crisis in technical and analytical terms -- seemingly embarrassed by our "religious" past and sold on materialist solutions. However, materialism and science will not, alone, get us out of our spiral of decay. "Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious."
(3) I propose that we reclaim Francis and take him seriously. The iconoclast within me might want to begin by smashing all those pretty garden birdbath statues, but perhaps that would be counterproductive. Nonetheless, if we truly find his joy, zeal, evangelism and love -- make it our own and share it boldly -- we might truly do something big. (1) Quoted by Coleman McCarthy in The New York Times, February 10, 1996
(2) Lynn White, "A Patron Saint for Ecologists," The Francis Book p. 88 (1980) McMillian Publishing Co, Inc. New York.
(3) ibid.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In The Washington Post, Saturday, February 17, 1996, Bill Broadway reported that "The Evangelical Environmental Network is spearheading a $1 million campaign in support of the Endangered Species Act, which is up for renewal." This is the group that brought us the "Let The Earth Be Glad" kits in time for last year's Earth Day commemoration. As a "sidebar" to the article, portions of "An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation" were quoted, and it is reproduced here:
"We call on all those who are committed to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to affirm the following principles of biblical faith:
. The cosmos, in all its beauty, wildness, and life-giving bounty, is the work of our personal and loving Creator.
. Our creating God is prior to and other than creation, yet intimately involved with it, upholding each thing in its freedom, and all things in relationships of intricate complexity. God is transcendent, while lovingly sustaining each creature; and immanent, while wholly other than creation and not to be confused with it.
. The Creator's concern is for all creatures. God declares all creation "good" (Genesis 1:31); promises care in a covenant with all creatures (Genesis 9:9-17); delights in creatures that have no apparent human usefulness (Job 39-41); and wills, in Christ, "to reconcile all things to himself [sic]" (Colossians 1:20).
. . Men, women, and children have a unique responsibility to the Creator; at the same time we are creatures, shaped by the same processes and embedded in the same systems of physical, chemical, and biological interconnections that sustain other creatures.
. [Because we are created in God's image, we] also have a unique responsibility for creation. Our actions should both sustain creation's fruitfulness and preserve cre-
ation's powerful testimony to its Creator.
. Our God-given stewardly talents have often been warped from their intended purpose: that we know, name, keep, and delight in God's creatures; that we nourish civilization in love, creativity, and obedience to God; and that we offer creation and civilization back in praise to the Creator. We have ignored our creaturely limits and have used the Earth with greed, rather than care.
. The Earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land....Because of this the land mourns and all who live in it waste away." (Hosea 4:1, 3). Thus, one consequence of our misuse of the Earth is an unjust denial of God's created bounty to other human beings, now and in the future."
GOD'S CREATION AT THE TURNING POINT
Is creation (the air, water, land, living beings) a gift of God to be protected or is it a "resource" for us to use as we see fit? That is the theological question behind scores of legal battles being waged in Congress. It is clear where the Bible stands on this issue. In Genesis, in the Noah story, and in the Prophets, God's covenant is with humans and nature, all God's creatures. Genesis 1:27, 2:15, 8, 9; Psalm 8:6; Hosea 2:18. Although we are given "dominion," stewardship and caretaking are clearly God's Biblical intention.
Most Americans support strong environmental laws. Nevertheless, in 1995, the Majority members of the 104th Congress set out to overturn these laws on the theological premise of exploitation and dominion rather than covenantal gift.
How could such popular laws be overturned? Not by open debate or serious public hearings, but by passing moratoriums on enforcement, cutting funds, passing rules to stop federal protections, or attaching "riders" to other unrelated legislation - thereby avoiding debate - this Congress has sought to hide its attack on the environment from the public.
Even the White House was apparently fooled. Last July, President Clinton signed a "salvage timber" bill for clearing diseased trees in national forests. This bill contained a rider that suspended all environmental regulation in these forests and actually permitted clear-cutting. Since then, the President has included the environment in his line-in-the-sand, and has vetoed some of the extreme efforts to turn the forests, land, water, and air over to polluters. The Senate has delayed action on other more extreme bills sent over from the House, and some moderate Republicans have broken with House leadership to prevent some of the most drastic attacks on nature.
The future of many environmental laws hangs on the final decision on the Federal budget, and whether the President will hold firm or give in to keep the government running. We are at a turning point. Critical decisions will be made soon on whether we protect Creation or use it up. Here is a partial list of environmental laws, gains for creation, threats to undermine any gains, and current status.
1. Toxic Waste
THREATS: The Environmental Protection Agency is operating on only 75% of last year's budget, and Congress has attempted to cut up to one third of its present budget.
STATUS: All Superfund cleanup has been suspended.
2. Clean Air/Climate
Global warming is beginning to be taken seriously by insurance companies and scientists all over the world. Recently, the scientific consensus was that the causes are definitely human activities, mostly the emission of Co2 gases from burning of fossil fuel. The gains have been less from the actions needed to limit Co2 than in the gradual acceptance of these findings.
THREATS: Although air-born lead has dramatically decreased, lead in paint and water pipes continues to bring grave harm to children, especially children of color and poor children living in run-down housing where flaking lead paint is often ingested. Lead poisoning results in brain damage and other serious health problems.
House Majority Whip Tom Delay has proposed that the U.S. withdraw from the Montreal Treaty and bring back DDT. Numerous bills and riders seek to ease regulation of chemical releases and the use of pesticides and herbicides that are especially harmful to agricultural workers.
STATUS: The U.S. agreed to the Climate Change Convention at the 1992 Earth Summit. The Convention calls for a decrease of Co2 emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. There is little political pressure to keep this commitment.
3. Land Use
GAINS: This refuge in Alaska is home to herds of caribou and to the Native Gwitchen people whose lives depend on them. The refuge has been protected from develop-
ment, and especially from oil drilling.
THREATS: Congress attached a rider to the budget reconciliation bill that allows oil drilling in the refuge, thereby threatening the caribou and the lives of the Gwitchen people. Representative Don Young (R-AK) wants to rename the refuge the "Alaska Oil Reserve." STATUS: The President vetoed one such budget bill, but the drilling language remains in more recent funding bills.
Takings
GAINS: There is a long legal tradition requiring the government to compensate private land owners for the public use of their land. The most familiar example is in highway development.
THREATS: S.605 is a composite of four Senate bills that compensates property owners with public money when environmental protection reduces potential profits from their land. In what amounts to a clear challenge to the concept of God's ownership, many Takings bills add up to the public paying owners to be good stewards.
STATUS: The President has promised to veto Takings legislation.
Grazing
THREATS: S.1459, introduced by Sen. Pete Comenici (R-NM) would keep fees low for ranchers and further restrict environmental protection of sensitive range lands.
STATUS: Passed Senate Energy Committee; Awaits floor vote.
Utah Wilderness Areas
THREATS: HR1745 would limit the area to 1.8 million acres; HR1500 would designate 5.7 million acres.
STATUS: House vote on HR1745 postponed; HR1500 gaining.
4. Forests
THREATS: A rider to a 1995 recissions bill allowed logging in the Pacific Northwest and permitted loggers to forego many basic environmental regulations as they clear-cut vast stands of National Forest in Oregon and Washington.
STATUS: The President inexplicably signed this bill in July after first vetoing it. HR2745 has been introduced by Elizabeth Pursa (D-OR) to repeal this rider.
Tongas National Forest
THREATS: The two Alaska Senators, Stevens and Murkowski (R-AK) have introduced bills to open up the Tongas forest to high-volume logging.
STATUS: On hold pending Interior Department Appropriation.
6. Endangered Species Act
THREATS: Rep. Don Young (R-AK) and Sen. Dirk Kempthorne have introduced bills that drastically curtail ESA protections. Already in the current fiscal year, no new species can be listed because of a rider attached to a military appropriations bill.
STATUS: The President vetoed one Interior Department bill that would have stopped new listings in F& 1996.
7. Clean Water
THREATS: HR961, introduced by Bud Schuster (R-PA) would cut back goals for clean water.
STATUS: HR961 passed the House; it is held up in the Senate.
Write or call the White House and your Representatives, and let them know you are aware of the attempts to roll back environmental laws. Refer to specific bills and give moral and theological reasons why it is wrong to use up creation rather than to protect it.
Call: White House Comment Line (202) 456-1111 : Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121
Write: President William J. Clinton
JUSTICE AND PEACE
The two bills introduced after the execution of writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni activists are now languishing in Congress. The bills' sponsors are still gathering cosponsors and promise to hold hearings in April. But Capitol Hill interest in responding to Nigeria's brutal dictatorship appears to be waning as Members speed through this short session so that they will have enough time for election day campaigning, flag waving, and baby kissing.
"We must not let them forget Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni activists - executed -- simply because they sought environmental justice!" Some members of Congress say that they are waiting for President Clinton to act first. Unfortunately, unless Congress keeps up the pressure, it is doubtful that the President will do anything more. On Nov. 10, 1995, the day Nigeria executed writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental activists, the White House announced an ineffectual condemnation of Nigeria, including the recalling of the U.S. Ambassador, a ban on the sale of military goods and services, a ban on military visas, and a U.S.-sponsored U.N. slap on the wrist. However welcome these initiatives were, the fact remains that any U.S. response short of targeted energy sanctions, including an oil embargo, will have little effect in loosening the grip on power of the Nigerian military despots.
Well, the U.S. Ambassador has quietly returned to Nigeria, without announcing tough sanctions against the country. The Sierra Club believes that this sends the wrong message to the military government of General Sani Abacha -- that the U.S. will not take decisive action against those governments that persecute, and in this case, execute, environmental activists. The Nigerian dictators remain in power, Ogoniland remains polluted, and its people remain impoverished. Meanwhile, another 17 Nigerian environmentalists are due to stand trial any day now, on the same trumped-up charges as those levied against Ken Saro-Wiwa. America must act quickly before they too are executed.
Please call your Senators today to urge them to cosponsor S.1419. Call your representatives and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 2697 -- bills to impose sanctions against Nigeria. Please call the Capitol Switchboard now at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators or Representative.
Both S.1419, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), and H.R. 2697, sponsored by Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ10), codify the sanctions announced by the Clinton administra-
tion before and since the execution of Nigerian environmental leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. The bills call for additional sanctions including a prohibition on future investment in Nigeria. The Senate legislation also urges the Administration to seek support for international embargoes on oil imports and arms sales to Nigeria. Both bills closely follow the declaration unanimously adopted by the Sierra Club Board of Directors.
The multinational oil companies have been out in force all over Capitol Hill in an effort to stop this legislation. The oil companies and the Nigerian government have hired no fewer than seven public relations firms to spin misinformation and quell public anger. Don't let the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni environmental activists be in vain! Ninety-six percent of Nigeria's foreign revenue comes from its oil exports. Nearly 50% of this oil is exported to the U.S., but only 8% of all the crude oil the U.S. imports comes from Nigeria. This makes up only 3.5 percent of America's total oil consumption.
It is both economically possible and morally imperative that we stop our consumption of the oil that fuels the current regime.
Much of the export revenue goes into the pockets of Nigerian Generals. Its people see little of the benefits. An international embargo on Nigerian oil would hit the dictatorship hard. South African President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have both called for an immediate oil embargo. Please call now and tell your representatives how important it is that the U.S. send a message to Nigeria that the execution of environmental activists will not be accepted.
For more information, contact, Stephen Mills, Sierra Club International Program, (202) 675-6691, or by E-mail at stephen.mills@sierraclub.org.
ACCOMPANIMENT IN GUATEMALA
IN MEMORIAM
"Pleasant Hill resident, Irene Power Dickinson, a nationally known anti-nuclear activist and crusader for the environment, died December 31, 1995 at Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. ... Mrs. Dickinson, a long-time proponent of recycling and clean environment, was the driving force in the organization of Recycling Partners of Cumberland County. ... Programs initiated by Irene and Leon Dickinson through Recycling Partners included Earth Day programs in county schools and local businesses; nationwide "Take the Wrap" environmental action program. ...
Mrs. Dickinson was actively involved with the environmental alliance that opposed the TVA efforts to bring on-line the nuclear power plant at Watts Bar, staunchly advocating for clean water and protesting the exorbitant cost to rate payers. She was also a supportive member of statewide environmental and peace groups."
Evidence of Irene Dickinson's deep and abiding concern for the preservation of our natural resources was highlighted recently when Al Fritsch, Director of Appalachia-
Science in the Public Interest, announced a new project entitled the Appalachia Sustainable Forest Center. The Center is located within the Daniel Boone National Forest at Livingston, Kentucky. Within the Forest is a four-mile nature trail, which as been named in memory and honor of Irene Power Dickinson.
QUOTH THE RAVEN
June 28-30, 1996, is the date for the Third National Women's Meeting of the United Church of Christ in Boston, Massachusetts. The theme of the meeting is "Visions and Voices." At a forum on Saturday morning, June 29, I will be presenting a seminar of Earth-based ritual called Gaia Rising!. Using resources that include Matthew Fox, Carter Heyward, Rosemary Radford Reuther, and others, this seminar will offer ways for women (and men!) to hear the voice of the Mother, discover the Divine Feminine, and experience the Earth-based roots of Christian faith. Drums, rattles, and tambourines are welcome! I encourage readers of this newsletter to attend this weekend. There will be many visions and voices in addition to my own. For more information, call the Coordinating Center for Women in Cleveland: 216-736-2150.
I lift this up as a response to James Schwarzlose's article reminding us of the legacy of St. Francis, and as a way to meet the challenge of the Evangelical call to get on board Noah's Ark. In 1993, I attended a national meeting sponsored by the national ICJP Working Group in Salt Lake City, Utah. A group of Native Americans called Earth Ambassadors assisted us in running the weekend. It was during that weekend that a Truth rose up from the Earth beneath my feet. We who are European Americans - conquerors, destroyers, consumers, takers - we have forgotten that we are Tribes of the Earth too. We have forgotten our own native roots. We need to reclaim our own tribal traditions to the extent we can. We have taken enough from Aboriginal people the world over. We must not appropriate their newly-rediscovered traditions yet again. We must find our own.
"And how is it that we hear, each of us in her own Native language?" Acts 2:8.
The Native language of all people is the Earth Song - silent speech of Standing Stones, or the sound of corn growing in the Illinois prairie; the winds, gentle breezes or ravishing storms; our great Sun to light us by day, or the watchfires to guard us by night; all the waters of our sacred world - the oceans, lakes, rivers, wells, and the mists and rains that replenish them. We hide away from the Sun in the summer and from the Moon in Winter; we change our clocks so that we can spend more time away from the natural world making money so we can consume and destroy more and more of our Native Earth Song. And Women especially feel the alienation deep within - bone deep; blood deep. We can no longer breathe the air; we are allergic to the scents of the once-sacred herbs.
We plug up our bodies to contain and absorb the sacred blood flow that was once a sign of the potential to bring forth life. We consign our wise elders to nursing homes because we can't take care of them ourselves. And our elders comply because they too believe that to be old is to be useless. To be near Death, to be able to see between the worlds of Life and Death, is terrifying because we no longer understand the circular nature of life, death, rebirth, and our own part in it. We deny the natural rhythms of once-sacred work. We are victims of breast cancer, AIDS, asthma, and mysterious, energy-robbing fatigue syndromes. As our Mother Gaia - the Earth - is dying, so are we.
There is a great statement of faith in Matthew 5 and 6, which we would do well to read carefully. In particular, Matthew 6:28b and 33: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...
But seek first God's realm and God's righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."
This passage has been used by charlatans to feed the greed of the masses. But these passages are not about "acquiring" anything. They tell us to consider, to seek, to listen, and to trust. There is a saying from the 60's that is still valid today: "Stop and Smell the Roses." It's a beginning.
Stop and smell the roses. Stop and notice the Moon. Stop and notice how the Earth tilts away from the Sun in winter, and back toward it in the Summer - and that this begins to happen at specific times on specific days.
Stop living as though the Sun really does come up in the morning.
After a while, you will start hearing the voices of the elements speaking to you. You will have an idea about how to care for a house plant one morning while you're asking it why it's not thriving. It may want to be moved into the sun, or into the shade, or have more or less water, or be repotted.
You may have a sudden desire to walk barefoot in the newly turned soil of your garden right before you start planting. Do it. The Earth has asked for your blessing. You have a blessing to give.
You may hear your Name called by the wind. Answer it. It may not be the name you were given at birth.
This is the beginning. One person at a time. The hole in the ozone layer shrinks; a new vine finds its way through the burned-over wasteland of the rain forest; a song bird is heard where he hasn't been heard for years.
And bring your Earth Song back into Christian liturgy - whatever your Native Tribe may be.
c opyright 1996 by Sea Raven - All Rights Reserved
Internet: Sea_Raven.parti@ECUNET.org
Elijah's Mantle is a creation of Sea Raven, Co-Chair of the Central Atlantic Conference Task Force on Integrity of Creation, Justice & Peace. Letters to the Editor, suggestions, submissions of comment, opportunities, etc. should be mailed to Sea Raven at 237 Warren Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. Elijah's Mantle is sent to members of the CAC Board and to all churches in the Conference. This edition has been prepared for distribution to the NEER mailing listas well. If you are not in any of those categories, and would like to receive the newsletter, please return the following request to Sea Raven. If you have received two or more newsletters, please pass your extras to an activist! Please do not send NEER address changes to Sea Raven. Questions regarding NEER mailing lists should be addressed to Don Clark, 12 Terrace Ave., Nutley, NJ 07110 (201-667-0079). Elijah's Mantle will be published approximately quarterly.
This and subsequent editions of Elijah's Mantle will be sent to nearly 1000 people on the NEER/UCC mailing list, approximately quarterly. Doug Hunt (dhunt@igc.apc.org) will be maintaining the NEER mailing list and provides internet and World Wide Web services through the Faith & Action Center (http://www.Center1.com/ Center1.html), maintaining the NEER web site (http://www.Center1.com/ NEER/NEER1.html). Membership subscriptions should be sent to Al Cohen (now Exec. Director, Southern California Ecumenical Council) at the address on page 12. Don Clark provides consultation and resources as does Paula Van Natta. NEER/UCC is a volunteer, recognized group of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ.
Fiduciary Services are provided by the Southern California Ecumenical Council.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
We believe that all living things on our planet are interdependent in a vast web of life. Therefore God's promise of Shalom. just peace, must be envisioned in ecological terms.
Our planetary future is radically jeopardized by economic competition and growth unrestrained by a sense of limits about our place in the whole. Our love for our children and our children's children requires us to raise serious questions about the level of production and the wasteful style of consumption in the United States and other affluent nations.
We affirm that a responsible. global economic system must distribute goods more equally and must recycle more effectively.
We look for sustainable development and participatory decision making.
We affirm the use of technologies which cooperate with the non-human roots of life on earth. instead of polluting and destroying them.
We seek to cultivate attitudes of sacred covenanting among peoples and between humanity and the nonhuman creation.
We call upon the United Church of Christ to display courageous leadership in:
. modeling ecologically responsible life-styles:
. developing a communal spirituality able to connect persons actively to the one, good creation of God; and
. advocating for economic and technological change so that our eanh has a green and sustainable future of just peace for all.
Below is one version of the 50 Years Is Enough alert/action we've designed for Earth Day 1996, which happens to coincide with the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (in Washington DC, April 22-23). Please feel free to adapt it for use at any events you are planning for that time.
Name & Address:
Fax Number: ______________
From: Robert G. Bisset, Media/Information Officer, Information and Public Affairs, United Nations Environment Programme, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254-2-623084; Fax: +254-2-623692
Email: Robert.Bisset@unep.no
St. Francis Would Have Approved
by James Schwarzlose
St. Mark's UCC, Hampstead, MD
by Charles McCullough OCIS
GAINS: Legislation creating the Superfund has enabled the cleanup of many immediate health threats at 2,000 sites, and plans have been made to clean up 1,300 more abandoned dumps. It is now generally accepted that people of color are excessively burdened with toxic dump sites. According to a UCC Commission for Racial Justice study (Toxic Waste and Race), three of five people of color live near these dumps.
GAINS: Auto emissions of hydrocarbons are down almost 50% in spite of a huge increase in the number of vehicles on the road. The number of cities violating air quality standards is down from 40 to 9 in the last 5 years. Lead in the air is down 98% since the phase-out of leaded gasolines.
The U.S. banned CFC's in aerosols in 1978, which has helped begin the reduction of ozone-destroying chlorine in the atmosphere. By 1992, 140 nations had signed a strengthened Montreal treaty to phase out all CFC's. The ozone shield is expected to recover by 2050, if nations hold to the treaty.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
GAINS: Under the Department of Interior, private animal grazing on public land earns minimal fees from ranchers and requires limited protections from overgrazing.
GAINS: The Bureau of Land Management has managed 22 million acres of wilderness in Utah for many whiles, while citizens have debated how much to designate as official wilderness.
Salvage Timber
GAINS: National forests are managed by the National Forest Service for the common good.
GAINS: The Tongas Timber Reform Act of 1990 protects wildlife habitats and one of the few remaining old growth forests.
GAINS: The 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) helped save the bald eagle, whooping crane, grizzly bear, blue whale, sea otter, and many other species.
GAINS: Over two-thirds of U.S. lakes and rivers have reached the Clean Water Act's interim goal of "fishable and swimmable" since enactment in 1972.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
The Honorable ________
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
NIGERIA SANCTIONS BILLS LANGUISH IN CONGRESS
CALLS NEEDED NOW!
By Doug Hunt
You can also visit the Sierra Club on the WWW and check out our Ken Saro-Wiwa page at http://www.sierraclub.org.
The wife of a Presbyterian Minister is currently in Guatemala, accompanying Maria Saquic. Ms. Saquic is the widow of Presbyterian Pastor Manuel Saquic, whose accused murderer Victor Roman, remains at large. There is a letter circulating in the U.S. Congress to pressure Guatemala to prosecute Victor Roman (who has been seen in a military base there). Please contact your Congressional Representatives and urge action.
- Sea Raven
ACTIVIST IRENE POWER DICKINSON
DIES AT THE AGE OF 80
From Crossville Chronicle, January 17, 1996
Sea Raven,
Editor
The Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility is a grassroots, volunteer movement committed to mobilizing UCC persons and resources for a wholistic ministry cognizant of the earth and its creatures.