What is the role faith and religion might play in addressing the critical question of what sort of world will we be leaving to our children and grandchildren?  There is a “litany of doom” currently facing us – droughts, rising sea levels, mass extinctions, resource exhaustion, potential pandemics, violence, over population, etc – but most people are familiar with most of them and don’t need to be reminded that our species is facing an unprecedented prospect of global over-grazing. It has been said that “optimists are now the ones thinking that things won’t get really bad really fast.” We live in a time where “faith” may be required just to get to sleep at night.

People of faith might disagree about priorities but if we are agreed that there are problems, we need to look together at what the solutions might be and at solutions that already exist. Most would agree that to address, for example, an environmental issue such as catastrophic climate change some sort of individual and collective action will be required. But there is the rub – how do people with different beliefs and different agendas ever manage to work together successfully on anything? The good news is that it has happened before, it is happening now and will likely continue into the future.

In 2008 a small group of people sent out a call to leaders of faith communities in the lower mainland to meet together to discuss their shared interest in a sustainable environment the response was gratifying. 200 people representing most of the major religious groups showed up. When similar calls went out for a multi-faith pilgrimage to Burns Bog in Delta to highlight its vulnerability to the Provincial “Gateway Project” similar numbers responded. Organizations like “GreenFaith,” Greening Sacred Spaces,” Pacific Power and Light and Earth Ministries have consistently found willing partners for their work.

Why? For thousands of years humanity has lived in a close relationship with the natural world. Jared Diamond in his study of why some societies survive over time while others fail found that relations with the environment to be one of the key variables. The Viking farmers in Greenland died out while the Inuit people of Greenland flourished by fishing. There are many plausible reasons why our modern societies seem to have lost a close connection to the natural world. Things like industrialization, urbanization, secularization and consumerism may have all played a part. What I would like to focus on for a moment is the unique role “people of faith” can bring to the question of how we can live sustainably into the future by looking more closely at our relationship to nature.

For a time the motto of the Anglican Eco-justice Unit was “be personal, political and prayerful.” That seemed to me to highlight the 3 levels of environmental concern – the individual, communal and cosmic. For many people the relationship to nature is only “personal.” Surveys have shown that most people “appreciate” nature and are “concerned” about the human impact on it. Apparently many people also feel they are “alone” in their concerns. They also indicate a hesitation to make any personal sacrifices. It would be interesting to know how many people consider their religious convictions to be “personal” even though they subscribe to a communal creed. It might even be worth a minute’s reflection on how our personal beliefs intersect with our feelings about nature. How do our communal beliefs overlay those personal beliefs?

There seems a somewhat arbitrary distinction between what is “spiritual” and what is “religious” as such distinctions are often made. In my view a “faith” has a personal, a communal and a transcendent dimension. To the extent we are “religious” we share a community of people who claim similar “faith.” Sadly, such communities are often defined more by who is excluded than by who is included, but that’s another difficult issue for multi-faith groups to deal with. What is encouraging to me is that even widely divergent religious communities share a common belief that the natural world is “good,” that it is full of beauty, that it has healing properties and that it can inspire one to the contemplation of the divine (however we might define that.) E.O. Wilson coined the term “biophilia” to describe humanity’s widely observed attraction to nature. There are some exceptions but they are rare. Many of the most controversial aspects of our relationship to nature come from the clash of what could be called a “traditional” versus a “modern” view of how the world works. To greatly oversimplify – a traditional world view sees the world as once “perfect” but now in decay. The modern world view sees a once primitive, chaotic world as progressing toward something “better” in the future. What may ease that longstanding conflict is what Dr Sallie McFague has called an “ecological theology” that all things are deeply interrelated in both their growth and their decay. To me this also implies the possibility of an integration of the personal, communal and transcendent levels of experience.

People like Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry have suggested that the “great work” of 21 century humanity will be to integrate this ecological view with both traditional and modern world views so that science and religion are no longer at odds but share a mutually sustaining sense of sacredness that extends broadly and deeply into nature.

Karen Armstrong has demonstrated that all major religions of the world share a belief in justice and compassion. Often those two get out of balance but belief in “justice tempered by mercy” is nearly universal. The Dali Lama said the essence of his religion is “kindness.” The problem of appropriate balance seems to be one that all religions must address and especially so in looking at current environmental issues where that balance can become quite complicated. For example: which is more compassionate, the preservation of wilderness or the creation of jobs?

There are lots of concerned individuals around and many groups that focus on environmental issues. Perhaps these are not merely environmental issues but deep ethical issues of how best to live and how best to “keep the faith.” What is it that people of faith can bring to the “stakeholders” table of achieving a sustainable future?

1) Long-term perspective – Religions have been at this for 100s if not 1000s of years. The Iroquois “Great Law” is to consider 7 generations in all your decisions (violation punishable by death.) Corporations claim to be constrained by year end bottom lines, politicians seem constrained by election cycles. Religions generally consider eternity!

2) Justice and care must be in balance. Do we value rules or relationships more? Are we in this together (WITT) or are you on your own (YOYO.) It is possible to be personal, practical AND principled - “Live simply (elegantly)”- Sallie McFague

3) Work together when possible - build communities and communion. Groups often have a strength and resilience that individuals lack.

4) Respect diversity – We are each an experiment in possibilities. God loves beetles. He created 400,000 species of them.

5) Consider the big picture – the God’s eye view – Kairos = beyond time and space Be holistic: keep “the head, heart and hand” in balance.

6) Be mindful – “listen” – consider “eyes open mysticism”- nature infused with spirit. Take time to reconnect “spiritually” with the natural world’s beauty, its healing power and the lessons it has to teach.

7) Be engaged - Sometimes it is the journey not the destination – “Pilgrimages” are part of all religious traditions. What you do speaks louder than what you say. Attitudes can follow from actions as well as actions follow from attitudes.

So what do we do now?

What does “caring for creation” (or greening sacred spaces) mean to you?

What would it mean to your faith community? Your neighbourhood?

What inspires (motivates) you to work for the “7 generations?” Knowledge and concern itself may not lead to effective action.

What is your source of hope that we can pass on a “sustainable” world to 7 generations?

What do you intend to do personally? What mutual actions would you suggest?

Clearly there are more questions than answers but if there are lots of problems, there are also lots of good solutions. It’s a question of how well we can work together. People of faith working with Spirit “can do infinitely more than we ask or imagine.”