621. Last Sunday morning the Orthodox Church made the news! (briefly)

The topic today is The Orthodox Environmental Movement and the contemporary Anti-Environmental Movement.

The headline just above is what’s called a “grabber”. I thought if I led with today’s topic you’d all go away. That’s what happens every September when I talk about the environment. Boring, eh? So the future of mankind is boring?

Back to the headline above: I was listening to NPR * early last Sunday morning when I should have been saying my prayers, and they had a segment about how in most Christian churches, September’s theme is Protecting the Environment. They added that “this movement began in the Orthodox Church” – which is accurate.

• Why, you ask, do I listen to National Public Radio and also support PBS, public television? Because they are the only media in America that are independent, not sponsored by and subject to the demands of moneyed interests, whether of the right or the left, who only want to make more money. Does public media have a “liberal bias”? If so, here’s why: Again and again I hear “We have asked such and such a Republican politician or government official for a response, but have not yet received one.” Explain that as you will.

In 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I issued an encyclical designating September 1 as a day for prayers, care, and protection of the natural environment.

In 1992, soon after his election, his successor Patriarch Bartholomew I convened a meeting of Orthodox Primates, who collectively adopted September 1 as a day of prayer across all the Orthodox churches.

This laid the groundwork for an ecumenical movement whereby many Christian churches declared the month of September a “Season of Creation”.

In 2008 the World Council of Churches followed, formally endorsing the period from September 1 through October 4 (Saint Francis Day) as a period for concern for protection of the environment.

Finally, in August 2015, shortly after publishing his landmark environmental encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis established September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation for Catholics. This aligned the Roman Catholic Church with the pattern originally established by Patriarch Demetrios.

Which brings us back to the NPR progam. “The movement originated with the Orthodox Church.”

The Orthodox Environmental Movement

When did it begin? A very long time ago.

Genesis 1:1, 26-28: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” ” God created mankind in his own image… God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Whether we interpret this passage figuratively or literally, here are the basic environmental principles contained therein: The world belongs to God, not to us. He gives us authority to care for it in His stead.

Recent Environmental History

We handled that responsibility relatively well till the time of the industrial revolution.

In the late Nineteen Century in America, with the spread of European-American civilization into the Great Plains, bison (the life of American Indians) were nearly wiped out – killed for the sport of it. Passenger pigeons, great flocks of which had filled the skies from horizon to horizon, were wiped out – killed for the sport of it.

In the early Twentieth Century, US President Theodore Roosevelt, “an avid adventurer and lover of nature, dedicated himself to protecting both wildlife and natural resources. He recognized that without dramatic action, the rich natural resources and incomparable landscapes of our country would disappear as quickly as the buffalo, leaving future generations without a legacy of natural splendors. As president, Roosevelt provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres of land, an area equivalent to the entire Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida. He sat aside 150 national forests, the first 51 federal bird reservations, five national parks, the first 18 national monuments, the first four national game preserves and the first 24 reclamation, or federal irrigation, projects, designations that were bitterly opposed by commercial interests.” Courtesy of theodoreroosevelt.org

But elsewhere, refining and other manufacturing interests freely polluted streams, rivers, residential areas.

The Cuyahoga River in central Cleveland, Ohio, had caught fire several times before, till in 1969 it went up in flames again, and television showed it to the nation:

Americans were shocked.

On December 2, 1970, Republican President Richard Nixon established the U.S. Environmental On Protection Agency (EPA) to consolidate federal pollution-control responsibilities under one independent agency. Congress did not need to give approval. However, the first administrator of the EPA was approved by the Senate by a unanimous vote. So you can see how things were in those days.

Fast forward:

The Contemporary American Anti-Environmental Movement

Forgive me for producing such a long list, but I think it’s important to us (including me – I didn’t realize it was this bad) to see the scope of what’s happening.

EPA and Air Quality Rollbacks

• Repealed Endangerment Finding: The EPA revoked the 2009 scientific finding (endorsed by over 98% of climate scientists) that greenhouse gases cause climate change and endanger public health. This removes the legal basis for federal climate rules.
• Massive Deregulation: The EPA launched dozens of rollback actions to weaken limits on power plant and vehicle emissions, mercury, and other toxic pollutants.
• Pollution Exemptions: The agency invited hundreds of coal and oil power plants to apply for exemptions from clean air standards.
• Budget and Science Cuts: The administration made steep budget cuts for the EPA and froze billions in green energy grants.

Public Lands, Drilling, and Mining

• Opened Protected Lands: Executive orders opened federal lands, national monuments, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling.
• Boosted Timber and Mining: Ordered fast-tracked timber production on federal forest lands and bypassed strict rules for deep-sea and domestic mineral mining.
• Reversed Conservation: Ordered weakened federal protections for endangered species habitats and national monuments.

Energy Policy and Global Pacts

• Paris Agreement: The U.S. initiated a formal withdrawal from the international Paris climate agreement.
• Promoted Fossil Fuels: The White House formed the National Energy Dominance Council to prioritize fossil fuel extraction and data center energy permits.
• Halted Clean Energy: The administration froze billions of dollars in electric vehicle charging infrastructure funds and restricted home energy efficiency rebates, while China moved forward rapidly in rhis area.

Federal Agency Staffing

• Fired Scientists: Thousands of federal workers and scientific staff at NOAA, NASA, and the EPA faced firings, buyouts, or reassignments.
• Canceled Climate Programs: Federal climate research datasets, monitoring stations, and environmental justice offices were suspended or closed.

And I have a feeling they’re just getting started.

Here is just one local example.

Invasive Asian Carp were introduced into the southern United States in the 1980s and have progressively moved upstream in the Mississippi River and the Illinois River, till today at the point where there is a short passage into Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes.

They consume enormous amounts of plankton and vegetation, wiping out native fish. Silver carp can jump ten feet out of the water (!) and can strike passengers and damage equipment on boats. They threaten multi-billion-dollar commercial and sport  fisheries in the Midwest and Great Lakes. 

Wouldn’t this be a simple problem to solve, with barriers in the Illinois River? Not these days. Politicians fought over it for years. Finally this year agreement was reached, and they got money from the states and the federal government. This year many young carp have reached the very edge of Lake Michigan. If they once get in, it’s all over.

Suddenly this summer, without explanation, federal funding was cut off. Area Republican politicians * went to President Trump and begged, and the money was restored.

• Correction, September 13. It was Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan who went to Mr Trump.

Just one example of federal environmental blindness and indifference.

The Modern Orthodox Environmental Movement

Is there one? From the top there often is. However… (we’ll come to that.)

His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew is pushing hard on it. Over the years he has come to be well known as “The Green Patriarch”.

In 2013 the Russian Orthodox Church issued a Statement on the Environment in considerable detail teaching that the Church supports working with local, national, and international * groups to care for creation. Environmental issues must not be used for political fights, economic rivalry, or selfish personal gain.

• Russian cooperation with international groups is almost impossible today, for obvious reasons.

However, how much of this ever trickles down to parish life? When did you last hear an Orthodox sermon promoting human responsibility for God’s natural world? * When did you ever hear that Akathist sung? When did you last read an Orthodox Blog Post or find an Orthodox podcast on the subject?

• Of course, in America that is a “hot button” politicized subject today.  If only Richard Nixon could hear that!

I hope I’m wrong. However, as I said, I have noticed over the years that when I go off on the subject of the environment, my readership plummets. Dull subject? I ask again: So the future of mankind is a dull subject? If this year is any different I’ll let you know.

Let’s end with

Some teachings from Patriarch Bartholomew about the Environment.

1. Orthodoxy is committed to ecology; it is the “green” Church par excellence. Our faith and our worship strengthen our commitment to the protection of creation and promote the “eucharistic use” of the world, the solidarity with creation. The Orthodox Christian attitude is the opposite of the instrumentalisation and exploitation of the world.

2. We believe that the roots of the environmental crisis are not primarily economic or political, nor technological, but profoundly and essentially religious, spiritual and moral. This is because it is a crisis about and within the human heart.

3. This world is not just a gift from God; it is a challenge for humanity. We have at last come to learn the truth that we have mistreated the natural environment and its resources. The consequences are plain and painful. They are evident in the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the food that we consume, the emotional and physical problems that we face in our health, but also in our relationships with each other on the local, regional, national and global levels.

4. The truth is that, above any doctrinal differences that may characterize the various Christian confessions and beyond any religious disagreements that may separate the various faith communities, the earth unites us in a unique and extraordinary manner. All of us ultimately share the earth beneath our feet and breathe the same air of our planet’s atmosphere. Even if we do not do enjoy the world’s resources fairly or justly, nevertheless all of us are responsible for its protection and preservation.

5. A church that neglects to pray for the natural environment is a church that refuses to offer food and drink to a suffering humanity.

6. A society that ignores the mandate to care for all human beings is a society that mistreats the very creation of God.

7. Harming God’s creation was tantamount to sin.

8. The virtue of contemplation or silence reflects the quality of waiting and depending on God’s grace; and by the same token, the discipline of fasting or frugality reveals the power of not-wanting or wanting less. Both qualities are critical in a culture that stresses the need to hurry, the preeminence of individual “wants” over global “needs.”

9. We are called – indeed, we are obliged – to embrace our role to preserve the earth as a gift and resource offered to humanity by a loving Creator.

10. This planet is a life-giving organism, which is more than plentiful for those who know and practice moderation.

11. The earth and humanity are created and intended to exist in a relationship of respect and harmony.

12. As greed overcomes our communities, consumption increases beyond what the earth can possibly sustain. In other words, the greedy ravage more resources than the earth can ever renew. Possessing the earth in such a selfish way deprives it of its life-giving properties and poses a great threat to the rest of creation.

13. In religious terms, the way we relate to nature directly reflects the way we relate to God and to our fellow human beings, as well as the way we relate to the biodiversity of creation.

14. The ecological crisis is directly related to the ethical challenge of eliminating poverty and advocating human rights.

15. Global warming is a moral crisis and a moral challenge.

16. The protection of our planet’s vitality and diversity is a sacred task and a common vocation.

17. Human attitudes and behaviour towards creation directly impact on and reflect human attitudes and behaviour toward other people, especially the poor.

18. Ecology is inevitably related to sociology and economy, and so all ecological activity is ultimately measured and judged by its effect upon the underprivileged and suffering of our world. The ecological problem is essentially a sociological one.

19. The solution of the ecological problem is not only a matter of science, technology, and politics but also, and perhaps primarily, a matter of radical change of mind, of new values, of a new ethos. In Christian theology, we use the term metanoia, which means a shift of the mind, a total change of mentality.

20. It is not proper to intend an ecological culture and to make decisions without taking into account their impact on the environment.

Source: basilica.ro