At their May 2010 board meeting, the United Methodist Council of Bishops heard that the public reaction to their environmental manifesto released last year has been muted.
Last Fall, the bishops released the pastoral letter “God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope & Action.” It asserts that, “[o]ur neglect, selfishness, and pride have fostered pandemic poverty and disease, environmental degradation, and the proliferation of weapons and violence.” In reaction, the bishops committed to “join with many global religious leaders to call for a comprehensive response.”
Critics of “God’s Renewed Creation” charged that the letter reiterated the dated and apocalyptic themes of the bishops’ 1986 call for U.S. nuclear disarmament entitled: “In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and A Just Peace.” (For IRD President Mark Tooley’s response to “God’s Renewed Creation,” see his article “The Religious Left’s Prophesies of Doom.”)
Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Project Manager for God’s Renewed Creation Pat Callbeck Harper updated the bishops on the public reaction to “God’s Renewed Creation.” As she put it, the bishops’ goal should be to ensure that their pastoral letter is “received into the life of the church.”
Harper focused on reaction among youth, and she made clear both that the letter was most popular with younger people and that they are a pivotal constituency because they are connected to strategic networks. She also reported that United Methodist seminaries are adopting the letter for some of their classes.
Though Harper sought to highlight the letter’s progress, she admitted secular media attention has been scant. She explained: “In Washington, D.C. and in other places around the world, volcanoes and other things, there’ve been a little more sexy stories…than our letter.” She also lamented the letter has not gotten more attention among United Methodists. Harper faulted lack of promotion by church leaders rather than any unpopularity of the letter’s message. She asked for the bishops’ help in further promotion.
Harper asked the bishops to provide contact information for a staffer to serve as a liaison between her and the individual conferences. Offering a a way for bishops to tout the letter, she suggested: “Find nine minutes, somewhere, when your annual conference is re-gathering from a break, or when you close a session of annual conference with a prayer at the end of the pastoral letter – it’s short and very beautiful – to show the nine minute project, just give people a taste of what it’s about.”
“There is no substitute for bishop[s] speaking from the podium,” Harper told them. Detailing her hope to partner with ten conferences, Harper asked the bishops prayerfully to consider joining this network. She also urged them to participate in a multimedia project to highlight leadership support for “God’s Renewed Creation.”
The bishops were also provided a booklet with various teaching tools. Among the materials in the booklet are the foundational documents, the “Pastoral Letter for Liturgical Settings,” and teaching guides for group study and children’s instruction. The children’s study includes a song to the melody of “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” the first verse reads:
If you’re green and you know it, plant a tree.
If you’re green and you know it, plant a tree.
If you’re green and you know it,
Then your life will surely show it.
If you’re green and you know it, plant a tree.
The song continues for five verses, each time substituting for “plant a tree” an eco-friendly action.
Harper concluded by discussing two legislative issues the bishops support. The first was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. The United States has yet to sign CEDAW, partly because of concerns it may facilitate greater access to abortion. Harper encouraged the appropriate bishops to lobby Sen. John Kerry (D- Mass.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R- In.), the chair and co-chair of a crucial Senate committee.
The second legislative issue Harper raised was the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START). Harper described START as “direct result, direct outcome, if you could have asked for it, of the language in the pastoral letter for measured steps to eliminate nuclear weapons in our world.” She urged bishops from states with congressmen on important committees to lobby them on behalf of The United Methodist Church.
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