The greening of faith goes forth in Seattle

LeeAnne Beres has what she calls the "60 Second Scripture" — a run-through of examples in the Bible that show a love of the environment.

She talks of Genesis, where after each stage of creation, God paused and saw "it was good."

She speaks of the Psalms that extol the beauty of heaven and Earth.

"It gives people an understanding that Christian theology is intertwined with caring for the Earth," said Beres, executive director of Earth Ministry, a 15-year-old Seattle organization whose goal is to inspire Christians and others of faith to act for the environment.

These days, people of faith are increasingly getting the message.

Today, about 50 local churches and synagogues are expected to take part in a march and rally in downtown Seattle as part of Step It Up 2007, a day of planned public events nationwide to call for action on climate change.

Earth Ministry is one of several local environmental groups coordinating activities in the Seattle area. Beres sees this as the next step for involvement by faith communities in environmental issues.

For some congregations, Step It Up is but a first step. And for those already involved in environmental matters, it's an opportunity to go from more congregation-level actions — such as choosing fair-trade coffee — to more public actions, such as rallying and calling for political change.

"It's the move to advocacy," Beres said.

Earth Ministry was founded by three Seattle-area people who saw that caring for the environment was important to some churchgoers, said the Rev. Jim Mulligan, a Presbyterian minister who's one of the founders. But the topic wasn't often mentioned in church and there weren't many resources to link theology and care for the environment.

Now, Mulligan sees faith groups focusing far more on the environment. For instance, local Christians, Jews, Muslims and those of other faiths are organizing an Interfaith Creation Festival from May 31 to June 3 at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. The festival is intended to launch a year of environmental activities.

Some say this flurry of activity has come about because of all the information on global warming, the release of the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" and the way Hurricane Katrina showed the effects of climate intersecting with racial and economic disparities.

"I think there's been something of another leap forward," Mulligan said.

The congregation at St. James Cathedral is among those beginning to focus on environmental issues.

Parishioner Derek Eisel, who came back to the Catholic Church about four years ago, said he was "pleasantly surprised by all the social-justice outreach" at the cathedral. "But there wasn't really any environmental advocacy."

He's working with others in the parish to form an environmental group that could, for instance, organize a parish environmental-resources fair.

"In the past, the regular churchgoer hasn't really seen care for creation as part of the social-justice mandate," said Patty Bowman, the cathedral's pastoral associate for social outreach ministry.

But Catholic social teaching, along with statements from the U.S. bishops, has much to say on the subject, she said. "It's been there for some time. But it's new for some people to go, 'Oh, it's part of our moral call as well as caring for people who are poor.' "

Last fall, about 100 people attended a showing and discussion of "An Inconvenient Truth" at St. James. Some parishioners plan to participate in the Step It Up march.

The environment is "so in everyone's consciousness right now that it's natural to want to bring your faith perspective to it," Bowman said.

Robert Beiser, social-justice coordinator for Hillel at the University of Washington, said the Jewish campus-life organization has long been active in environmental causes. Hillel will have representatives at the Step It Up march.

"It's an issue that's important to a lot of young members of faith communities," Beiser said. "As a result, the faith communities that are trying to reach out to those young members are making it more a part of their guiding principles.

"More and more," he said, "it's becoming a tenet."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

If you go

Step It Up

A number of local Step It Up activities are planned today, including:

• March beginning 2 p.m. at Occidental Park, Occidental Avenue South and South Main Street, in Pioneer Square, and ending at Myrtle Edwards Park, 3130 Alaskan Way W., in downtown Seattle.

• Rally at Myrtle Edwards Park, 4 p.m.

• Climate-solutions fair at Myrtle Edwards Park, 4-6 p.m.

For other activities and information: http://stepitupseattle.org