God from the Ground Up!

ROD PATTENDEN explains how Earth Ministry and the Waterlines project is helping share the gospel for the whole earth.

“Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink” is no longer just a reference to being lost at sea. Now it is more often a response to being lost in the increasing dilemma of natural resources in Australia and the pollution of our most precious commodity, clean drinking water; the water of life.

Our presence in creation is having profound affects on our environment — the world that feeds and sustains us.

The Church has been late in coming to an awareness of these realities and we find ourselves under resourced in our worship and daily discipleship to give adequate expression to honouring the earth as God’s gift.

One dynamic response to this poverty has been the development, over the last five years, of the Earth Ministry in Sydney North Presbytery.

Earth Ministry Coordinator Professor Barry Leal has had a distinguished career as a University Administrator. More recently, he has turned his attention to the study of the new field of ecotheology producing three books and leading a range of developments that give practical expression to ecotheologically aware ideas.

Professor Leal strongly defends the Earth Ministry project against people who see it as irrelevant or peripheral to the life of the Church.

“The environment is not a distraction from the basic message of the gospel,” he says. “We live in a period where humankind is responsible for the pollution and destruction of what we believe to be God’s creation — this cries out for a heartfelt response.”

Under Professor Leal’s leadership, Northbridge Uniting Church congregation forged a series of projects that led its community to reduce plastic bag usage, develop a bush garden on the church property and foster wider community awareness of the environment.

Recent initiatives, centred at Denistone East, have focused on the connecting thread of the local geography around the theme of water.

Called the Waterlines Project, this new venture links congregations around the Lane Cove River Valley in joint action and greater awareness of “how our very backyards connect with the wider pictures we have about God and the land”.

Caring for creation

The Rev. David Reichardt of the Denistone East congregation says the Earth Ministry concept can and should lie at the heart of our life as a church.

“It’s missional. It’s ecumenical. It’s something the whole church needs to be involved in, and it’s something we can do together — proclaim God’s glory in nature and call all people to love and care for God’s creation.”

Earth Ministry has drawn the interest of people on the edge of the church who are passionately concerned about environmental issues. Warm response has also come from local communities, politicians, National Park Rangers and others outside the church who’ve been surprised by, and yet welcoming of, this new expression of the church’s mission.

Waterlines is an innovative, three-year research and reflection project seeking to raise awareness for congregations and communities around the catchment area of Lane Cove River.

It will help provide inspiration, analysis and practical action to assist people in interacting with the earth following the watercourses that shape the local geography.

Expertise is being drawn from water engineers, bush regenerators, scientists, artists and worship leaders to find ways of renewing our relationship to this land.

Waterlines involves a radical but life-giving re-imagining of our faith from the ground up. While primarily a local project, it hopes to inspire others. The dream is that people in other regions around Australia will take up the challenge of worshipping and expressing faith in a holistic way — a way that includes the land as a fundamental part of God’s goodness to humanity.

Learn about the wider relevance of the Earth Ministry and the Waterlines Project by visiting www.earth-ministry.com. This website includes some of Barry Leal’s sermons and other resource ideas about caring for the earth in your neighbourhood.

Further resources can be found in Barry Leal’s books including The Environment and Christian Faith and the newly launched Through Ecological Eyes. This volume has a wealth of sermon ideas to connect the images of creation mentioned in the Bible with local worship and action (see review)

The Earth Ministry is clearly assisting the church in widening its mission in the world —producing resources to equip action and forging new models of community involvement that expresses the glory of God.

The Earth Ministry is bringing congregations together and making new connections with the wider community as an expression of God’s love for the whole earth. It is a project of action and imagination that re-ignites our sense of wonder and our ethical responsibilities to care for God’s gift in creation.

Rod Pattenden