Word from the Senior Warden

Another Earth Day has come and gone, and the gross insufficiency of humanity’s responses to multitudes of clear and present environmental dangers remains glaringly obvious. I would like to use this column to reflect, from a spiritual standpoint, upon the environmental messages that Earth Day is meant to highlight and to serve as a call to action.

In the past decade or so I have come to appreciate the power of approaching humanity’s environmental crises from a religious vantage point. For example, very early in my association with St. John’s, shortly after my confirmation on March 13, 2013, at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, I attended an event entitled Sustaining Hope in the Face of Climate Change in Washington, DC, sponsored by The Episcopal Church, the Church of Sweden, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Father John allowed me to report on the conference at a morning worship service at St. John’s upon my return to Copake Falls. At the conference, I learned about the Episcopal Creation Care Covenant, which is a 4-page document that I recommend for all parishioners to read. It begins: “In Jesus, God so loved the whole world. We follow Jesus, so we love the world God loves. Concerned about the global climate emergency, drawing from a range of approaches for our diverse contexts, we commit to reform and restore loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with all of Creation.” It addresses actions that can be taken by individuals, congregations/ministries/communities, dioceses, and church-wide.

Fast-forward to the present, I just learned about a newly formed faith-based environmental initiative focused specifically on plastic pollution launched by the Beyond Plastics organization: Toolkit for Houses of Worship to Join the Movement to End Plastic Pollution. I think this would be a great initiative for St. John’s to endorse and to put into practice. I would be interested to hear the opinions of others about this topic.

 – Brian Boom, Senior Warden