Passionate conviction is not uncommon among environmentalists, but the growing linkages between organized religion and environmental activism may bring a whole new fervor to the cause. Around the country, religious leaders are asking their congregations – and automakers – “What would Jesus drive?”

The Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns engages individuals, congregations and religious institutions to “foster an awareness that care for creation is integral to a life of faith.” The Network is a program of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, an association of 17 Christian denominations whose mission, according to director David Leslie, is to “educate and mobilize the faith community on the pressing issues of the day that relate to justice and the common good.”

Leading up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, environmental issues were at the fore. Interested people in the faith community tried to involve religious groups in local, related events, but met with little success. According to Network program director Jenny Holmes, “It was very difficult to try to find the people that had a real passion for environmental stewardship in congregations and denominations. So out of that experience came the vision to better organize the faith community around environmental concerns. We envisioned a network where representatives from congregations or denominations would be mobilized and have the capacity to share resources and information among all of the different faith communities.”

The Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon fulfilled that vision by creating the Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns.

When the Network started, there were some national efforts to distribute environmental materials to congregations. But, as Jenny says, "What is happening nationally doesn’t always translate to the grassroots level.” The Network began with a survey and gatherings “to surface the people that had this passion.” Jenny remembers, “One of our first events was a conference called ‘Ethics, Economics and Endangered Species.’ We were looking at the endangered species issue and were able to bring together people with different viewpoints before the vote in Congress on the Endangered Species Act. It was very timely. We demonstrated that the faith community can play a very positive role in bringing together divergent views to discuss key issues in the Northwest.” Following these discussions, religious leaders in Oregon signed onto a statement in support of a strong Endangered Species Act.

In building the Network, Jenny says, “We were able to be very intentional about following up with people.” The endangered species discussion led to a field trip to southwest Washington’s Willapa Bay, where a local minister, Dan’l Markham, was working to find solutions to local economic and environmental challenges. They visited a woodland owner who managed his land for both trees and spotted owls. “I think it really showed people some possibilities for collaboration, and the role of the faith communities in helping bridge some of these gaps,” says Jenny.

When David Leslie arrived at the Ecumenical Ministries in 1997, he led a thorough evaluation of its many program areas and decided that the environmental work of the Network was an important area to develop. Jenny became the Network’s first staff person in 1998. Says David, “It’s a tough thing because we are standing in a kind of breach. On one hand, we’re trying to get the main line religious perspectives into the environmental community, a community that may or may not have a receptivity to religious perspectives. We’re trying to affirm, within the religious community, environmental concern that oftentimes isn’t affirmed. So a lot of churches and synagogues and religious communities will say, ‘Well, this is not our area of interest.’ And yet, there are traditions that date back thousands of years of very consistent concern, metaphor, poetry, and language about how you live in this holistic place.”

David continues, “I think part of the religious community’s role is to raise issues about power and privilege. Ecumenical Ministries has a history of also being guided by those who don’t have a voice, those who don’t have the lobby and the advocates.” He laughs when he says part of EMO’s mission is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

The Network and Ecumenical Ministries have not shied away from contentious debates. David remembers, “We were asked early on to sign in support of breaching dams on the Lower Snake River. I got a call from an Episcopal bishop in eastern Oregon saying, ‘I don’t know if we ought to be jumping into that.’ We already had a very strong, well-known position supporting farm workers and their organizing rights. So we used this as an opportunity to set up a series of community briefing forums. We called some of them ‘Day of Moral Deliberations.’ It was an opportunity to gather people of faith and the larger community to deliberate on the implications of both having the dams as well as breaching the dams.”

David says “allowing people to use their own language” is a key tenet of the forums, and the work of the Network as a whole. Speakers at the dam breaching forums included rural pastors, barge owners, farmers and tribal leaders. “You’re exploring what people have in common. As people tell stories, the metaphors emerge. What do salmon mean or what does water mean? That is deep in the theology, deep in the ethic. It will be communicated differently but you find there are a lot of common points. At the same time we’re looking for the differences and how to work with those differences in ways that are more life-sustaining and community-building.”

Ecumenical Ministries has not taken a position on breaching the dams. According to David, “Not having a position one way or another, we were able to set up the dialogue process and bring more people to the table.” But on other issues, like the Endangered Species Act and climate change, they have taken a clear stand. “Through moral dialogue, discernment, looking at the principles, there are times that you have to take a position. We try to use a process that gets input from our membership, because on any issue we’ve got all perspectives represented in the pews.”

Providing food for the needy has traditionally been a concern of church groups. In addition to new initiatives the Network has taken a traditional church concern – food for the needy – and broadened it to look at food security and sustainability in the region. Since 1997 the Network has worked to deepen understanding between producers and consumers by sponsoring the annual “A Place at the Table” conference on food, ethics, and the earth. In 1999 the Network released a book, Portland’s Bounty: A Guide to Eating Locally and Seasonally in the Greater Portland Region. The book is an accessible guide to responsible food choices, with eloquent encouragement and practical information about food buying, growing and preparation, as well as information about hunger, food security, and activism. In the introduction, Jenny writes, “Food connects us with the Creator, to each other and to the earth. Food is a justice concern. How the food system is organized affects people and the earth profoundly.” The second edition of the book sold 1,000 copies in just six months.

Most recently, the Network coordinated the Oregon Interfaith Global Warming Campaign, part of a national interfaith movement to change energy policy, as well as light bulbs in churches and homes. The campaign kept in touch with local senators during debate on the Energy Bill, and encouraged congregants to speak out. Workshops all over the state with titles like “Cool Congregations: People of Faith Caring for God’s Climate” have discussed science, ethics, and specific options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “These events, more than anything else, have led to action,” says Jenny. The Network encourages clergy to address these issues from the pulpit; they recently distributed sermon notes on fuel efficiency and clean cars.

The Network’s Oregon Interfaith Power and Light project encourages congregations to upgrade their energy efficiency, provides incentives for churches and congregants to switch to renewable power, and provides consultations on energy efficiency and solar energy. Jenny explains, “With renewable energy options becoming available in Oregon, we thought it’d be a great opportunity to educate the faith community about renewable energy, and it’s served as a complement to our global warming campaign. It gave people direct hands-on things to do.” A deal with Green Mountain Power, Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp means that every congregant who signs up for renewable power generates a $10 donation for her/his church. Forty-four congregations now have liaisons trained to provide education about renewable energy and conservation, and 11 congregations have completed lighting efficiency upgrades through a pilot project that tested a new funding opportunity for non-profit energy projects.

According to David, “the larger part of our advocacy is in our own church base.” Jenny says one of the Network’s challenges has been getting folks to move from talk to action. “It has been slow going with a lot of faith groups. I’ve been surprised by groups that I thought would be more on board not going very far, as well as by some that have taken this on very recently and are making great leaps forward.”

The Network’s influence can be seen in other programs of Ecumenical Ministries as well. At the Patton House, which provides drug- and alcohol-free residential housing to low-income individuals in North Portland, volunteers recently broke ground for a community garden/edible landscape. The goal of the project is “to promote health and positive social relations in an environmentally sustainable manner.”

“The Network has provided a place for people to put together their environmental and their faith hats and that creates some real energy,” says Jenny. “People come into environmental work with more depth, thinking with their head and their heart. They’ve been singing in the choir for years and they’re a leader in their environmental group, but they never connected the two or seen the possibilities. We’ve given them some support and some encouragement to go forward and get something started within their congregation.”

Contact
Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns/Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon
Jenny Holmes, Director of Environmental Ministries
David Leslie, Executive Director
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon
0245 SW Bancroft Street, Suite B
Portland, OR 97239
phone: (503) 221-1054
fax: (503) 223-7007
e-mail: emo@emoregon.org
web: www.emoregon.org