ANN: Jan Paulsen

Adventist leaders comment on Copenhagen climate summit: Caring for environment is “Christian issue,” president says

(Victor Hulbert, ANN, 14 Dec. 2009)

Should Christians be concerned about caring for the environment? The president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, Jan Paulsen, says “yes,” in a video released on YouTube, coinciding with the Copenhagen Summit.

Spectrum: Jan Paulsen on Creation Care

Spectrum recently highlighted a new film by Jan Paulsen that considers care of God’s created world–Jan Paulsen on Caring for Creation (Alexander Carpenter, 2 Dec. 2009). As always, engaging conversation followed.

Click here to view the video.

Adv Today: A Theology of Tree-Hugging

A Theology of Tree-Hugging (Nathan Brown, Adventist Today Blog, 3 Dec. 2009). Excerpt:

How we live in comparative affluence impacts directly and indirectly upon the lives of millions of others and upon the limited resources of our world. As Christian stewards, we should be using the many choices in our lives, our consumer power and our political voice to work against the blind disregard of environmental responsibility in much of the Western world.

An addition quote:

Because of the prevalence of the “Christian” subdue-and-master attitude, Christianity is often positioned among the antitheses of environmentalism. In many intellectual circles, Christianity is deemed synonymous with capitalism, consumerism, Westernism, industrialism, imperialism and even militarism. In reality, Christianity should be at the forefront of protest against these selfish and destructive attitudes and practices…

WCC Statement on Just Peace

I found this paragraph on the environment while reading the World Council of Churches (WCC) statement on Just Peace (p. 2):

“Initial Statement Towards an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace”

6. The angel’s song [of Luke 2] puts the emphasis on the earth as the location of peace, so as to indicate that the curse that was placed on the earth because of Adam’s sin is lifted (Gen 3:17-19). We believe that Christ, the “second Adam”, opens up new ways of dealing with the earth. Our salvation cannot be separated from the wellbeing of creation. This is the horizon for the churches’ peace-building ministries. We wish to affirm this in the face of the dangerous realities of climate change, nuclear threats and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. [full document]

See also #12, #31, #40, #44 and others I haven’t listed.

Vibrant Life: Green Blog

Last week I found out an old friend of mine writes a green blog for Vibrant Life magazine. (Photo from the VL website)

She also recently wrote a piece for Adventist Activism on community.

Creation Sabbath

Today is Creation Sabbath for Adventists around the world.

Here is the website set-up for today’s events–Creation Sabbath.

And here is a prayer by Alexander Carpenter (Spectrum). What do you think?

What did you and your church do to celebrate Creation Sabbath?

Sleeth on Sabbath — Catalyst Conference ‘09

Today Matthew Sleeth spoke at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. Drew Dyck of Christianity Today reports this snippet about Sabbath:

Matthew sees a connection between our conception of time and our treatment of God’s earth. He didn’t mince words.

“How many of you take a Sabbath?” he asked the room of Christian leaders.

Not a single hand went up.

“You might as well just take the Ten Commandments and rip them out of your Bible,” he said.

Then he took a Bible and actually ripped them out!

Read the full report here.

Yahoo: Nature Makes Us Nicer

Nature makes us nicer, according to new study (Trystan L. Bass, Yahoo! Green, 6 Oct 2009)

Not only can a walk in the park be relaxing, looking at greenery can actually improve your relationships and make you more generous. That’s what a University of Rochester research team discovered… [full article]

Trifecta

Three links for your Monday evening:

• Green (Film, 48 minutes, watch online)
• No Impact Man (Book, C Beavan, see earlier post)
• Heroes of the Environment 2009 (Article, Time magazine)

SCUPE: Eco-Justice Course

SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education) is offering a eco-justice class in Chicago next month (October 2009).

SCUPE S-H 307: Eco-Justice: A Vision for a Sustainable City

The course will develop a holistic vision for a sustainable city as an outworking of the concept of shalom, a just peace.  The course will evaluate the three components of sustainable community development: the three E’s of economics, environment and equity (or social justice).  Participants will xplore the course topic via readings, panel discussions and site visits.  Students will have the option of exploring key issues such as energy policy, food production, environ-mental justice and pollution and how these challenges relate to the central course themes.  Central to the course is the question, “What does it mean to be a sustainable urban community?”

Links: Eco-Justice Syllabus & GTUS Courses.

Previously, we highlighted an eco-theology course at AMBS.