ORTHODOXY AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
by William Leonidas
The following column is the first in a series focusing on the environmental movement as it relates to our Orthodox faith. Each column will consist of two parts: the theological basis for environmentalism and the ways we can express and practice an environmental consciousness, or spirituality, within our Orthodox worship and parish life.
THE THEOLOGICAL BASIS
This exploration in theology will include excerpts from Scriptures, the Fathers, and contemporary writers. This first installment focuses on what I call the "environmental psalm."
Every day in her liturgical life, the Church sings praises to God in thanks for Creation. Specifically, Psalm 104 is sung at the beginning of every Vesperal service. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord You are very great...You set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken." The story of creation is retold, as the Psalmist, personifying nature's continual motion, recreates the wonder all children of God feel for the foundation, the waters that cover it, and the springs that run below it. "The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works. He causes the water to run, so that grass can grow, beast can feed, and man can farm. The tree, made for the bird; the mountains, a refuge for the goat; the rocky terrain, a home for the rabbit."
In the structure of the early Semitic science, our Fathers acknowledged God's guiding hand in the every day events they witnessed. "You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting." The daily toil of man is seen within the perspective of God's plan, as is the hunt of the lion, the creeping of insects, the sport of the whale "These all wait upon You; that You may give them their meat in due season."
To sense the world around us, regardless of our immediate surroundings, in wonder of the light of God's creation, is truly a gift. This gift, so common in children, has been forfeited by most of us. We seem to have built our Tower of Babel so high, that we imagine ourselves on top of the world, fully cognizant of the natural mechanism around us, and capable of controlling it to suit our purposes.
This control of nature, of course, has little basis in reality, although the illusion of control permeates our thoughts and actions day after working day. This imagined control in turn desensitizes our mind and emotions to the otherwise apparent plunder our economic system commits on His creation. Careful scientific analysis, honest public policy formulation, diligent application of a more environmentally benign lifestyle, are all necessary elements of the formula to rediscover the symbiosis of man and nature as well as correct the economic externalities that have caused our environmental problems. But all of these elements, without the return to a genuine, even daily, appreciation of the wonder of Creation, will not bring us back to the balance of Divine Grace and human endeavor we all need and search for. This is the call of our liturgical life through prayers such as Psalm 104.
THEOLOGY IN ACTION
As a way to practice our call to be environmentalists, every column will follow up "The Theological Basis" with a practical application, which follows:
If someone offered you a way to have a real positive impact on the quality of the drinking water in your town, would you seize the opportunity?
Leachate from landfills holding our waste contaminates ground water supplies an accepted fact. This underground water, which makes up less than 1% of the world's fresh water, accounts for over half the population's drinking water. By reducing the amount of waste you produce, the problem of leachate contamination will be reduced and, perhaps someday, eliminated.
This issue's column contains the simple hierarchy of solid waste management that has been accepted by environmental groups including the recycling community. The methods by which we should handle our solid waste are listed in order of descending preference:
Reduce the amount of waste currently produced
Recycle/Compost the maximum portion of waste
Incinerate by well managed methods the balance of waste
Landfill the residue in secure fills.
How can we, in our personal lives, make an impact on the solid waste problem? First, we can REDUCE the amount of packaging, which is generally disposed of after one use, that we use for our purchases. In today's society, we place a high value on convenience. The direct result is excess packaging. We can take the steps necessary to avoid this packaging, even if steps compromise convenience. Many possibilities come to mind:
Taking used bags and plastic delicatessen containers into the super market to carry groceries and produce.
Composting organic waste in a small container or compost pile in the backyard. Composting is simply the natural decomposition of organic material.
Substituting reusable plastic food containers for disposable plastic ("Saran") wrap we use in the kitchen.
In the parish, the opportunity to REDUCE is obvious to anyone sensitive to environmental woes. I was delighted one Wednesday evening this Lent when the post-Liturgy dinner was served on the ceramic plates stored in the parish refectory. This return to the old way of doing things that is serving coffee in porcelain cups and substituting ceramic plateware for styrofoam or paper disposables was not as convenient as our usual practice, I suppose, but the spirit of washing those dishes rather than throwing more parish trash away was more than enough compensation. Undeniably, we work hard to provide for functions at our parishes, and disposable dinnerware makes the job more convenient but we have to ask ourselves the question: convenience at what cost?
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