Dear Young Adult & Campus Ministers,

Hello from the Seattle office of The Episcopal Church Center, which I share with your Associate Program Officer, Jason Sierra.  He invited me to send some thoughts to you from my position as Economic and Environmental Affairs Officer for this issue of Broadcast.

Much of what I see my work to be about is simply to help us all recognize the grace and beauty of all creation, and that our faith calls us to love all of it.  E.O. Wilson, the noted Harvard ecologist, coined a beautiful term for this: biophilia. He contends we are actually hard-wired to love life.

If that is the case and, as Oberlin professor David Orr writes, our "alienation from the natural world is unprecedented," then we live with profound and often unrecognized grief: being alienated from that which we love.

Though blame for that alienation is sometimes placed at Christianity's doorstep, we do have a rich theology and worldview which I believe is actually crucial in bridging the alienation. And that theology must be practically expressed.

Of course in your leadership roles you have an opportunity to influence the choices of those whom you serve. And the community-building, educational programs you facilitate can lead to awakening us to our connection with all of God's creation and help heal the alienation to which Orr writes.

When I reflect on my work and the work of the church as a whole, in the context of ecological degradation and economic injustice, I am often struck by the importance of Christian formation. To me, that formation must emphasize the rather obvious yet often overlooked fact that our ministry happens some "place." That place is Earth.  And we all need to be "formed" in such a way that we not only know that our faith, our tradition, and our theology include a rich ecological ethic but also feel that ethic in our hearts and bones.

I find spending time with others both in silence and in prayer/conversation outdoors opens doorways to this sort of knowing and feeling.  I like to encourage that, when possible, service learning and experiential education opportunities seek to make connections between social, economic and ecological justice.  We, as a church, tend to recognize our faith’s call to care for people…but not so much the rest of creation.  So helping people see those connections is important, and can even help them see in new ways.

Below I briefly describe some of the resources that might be helpful to you in this area of ministry.  I would very much welcome hearing back from you about resources you are already using, programs you have developed.

Please know of my interest in working together. As you know better than I, young adults have grown up with more ecological awareness than their parents. They want and need their church to be relevant and prophetic to today's crucial concerns and it seems to me are drawn to parishes engaged in economic and environmental justice efforts.

Thank you for your work!

Blessings in it, Mike Schut

Books:
Sallie McFague’s Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril
Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Ched Myers’ The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics

Books with Community-Building Study Guides:
Over the years I have edited and partially authored anthologies of writings from a wide variety of authors, with built-in study-guides meant to guide individuals and small groups on a journey into important matters of the heart, designed to build community, and encourage specific actions to help bring about a more just and compassionate world. The books are available through bookstores, Amazon, and the publisher, Church Publishing:
- Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective (1999)
- Food and Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread (2003)
- Money and Faith: The Search for Enough (2008)

Advocacy:
- To bring about a world more closely resembling God’s kin-dom, we must work together.  Encourage young adults to sign up and engage with the Episcopal Public Policy Network.
- The Episcopal Network for Economic Justice has some wonderful resources on their website. 

Action:
- More and more churches are creating “Green Teams." There may well be ways to incorporate that sort of work within your ministries, the buildings in which you work, and so on. Visit the Episcopal Ecological Network's website for advice.
- The three areas in which individuals have the greatest environmental impact are transportation, food choices and how they care for the place they live.  Earth Ministry’s resource “Caring for All Creation” provides prayers, liturgical/worship and educational resources and actions focusing on those three areas.
- Finally, Interfaith Power and Light is a “Religious Response to Climate Change.”  They have tools to measure both an individual’s and a parishes’ carbon footprint. 

Organizations (working to connect social and ecological issues, job training and the like):

1. Solar Richmond
2. Sustainable South Bronx

Liturgical Resources:
- Web of Creation

A Soccer Field Made Sacred
Mike Angell, Diocese of San Diego

20 minutes from Dorcas House, an orphanage for children in Mexico, lie a set of pristine soccer fields.  I never would have guessed that the soccer fields would be such fertile ground for discussion of God’s Mission in the world, but there they were, and there we were.  ..... >>>

Life Together
The Rev. Adam Shoemaker, Diocese of Massachusetts 

“Life in community is not easy,” I heard myself say, over a cup of coffee at Starbucks, as I was counseling a teen in my parish who recently spoke to me about difficulties she was having with her youth group.  And yet, as we talked, it seemed clear how much she valued the relationships she had formed with the other young people in our church .... >>>

Called to Serve
Virginia Holt, Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

My year as YASC volunteer changed my views and life in many ways, but within the context of service it altered my career path and goals.   I have a degree in business administration and had always envisioned myself in power suits sitting behind a big desk. Why did I become a Service Corp member one would ask... >>>