I love the opportunity to explain the work of Episcopal Relief & Development to my non-churchy friends. They are often surprised to hear a faith based organization mobilizes people within their local community to empower development around the world. I am often reminded of the bumper sticker: think globally, act locally. When Episcopal Relief & Development asked me, a seminary representative from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, to attend the Episcopal Leadership Institute's Eco-Justice Immersion I was excited but confused. I saw only a tenuous connection between international development and eco-justice.
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| The event drew participants from around the nation. L-R, Leanne Gehrig, IL. Caleb Richmond, WA. Ashley Graham-Wilcox, CA. Christy Dargas, AZ. Rick Richards, MA. |
The realization that community gardens look the same in Honduras as in Huston was not lost on me. That, however, was not really the focus of the week. While, yes, it is important to recognize that, as Brian Sellers-Peterson says, all you need to know about the Christian faith you can learn from a garden, the event delved deeper. Local community is like a metaphor for events happening globally. The worker injustices that happen at home are often mirrored and amplified in developing countries. Ecological injustices found on American soil can often be seen in new and horrifying fashions overseas.
Speaking of eco-things, it is worth taking a moment to examine this as a paradigmatic term. The prefix eco- has come a long way since its origins. We now associate it with the Prius, Recovery Act job creation, and expensive household products. The Greek origin, oikos roughly means household or home. When we think of ecology or economy we are thinking of ways in which we relate to and structure home. In thinking of justice issues surrounding these eco- words we must both look outside and within ourselves to fully realize our connection with home; justice, then, emerges as the recognition that through our structure of oikos we are drawn into relationship with all creation.
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| Jessie Dye of Earth Ministries talking about advocacy |
After the week of conversation, led by Mike Schut and Jason Sierra, both of the Episcopal Church Offices in Seattle, I gained not only a better understanding of how to relate to my local communities concerns but also how to recognize a need for radical change on a systemic level. Episcopal Relief & Development works much the same way: local community action based within a world of radical systemic change. Our relationship with home and our neighbors requires us to be responsible stewards of a global community. Theologian Cynthia Moe Lobeda suggests that in this time of ecological crisis that if we, as people of faith, find God in all things, are we crucifying him once again? I would suggest that recognizing the local injustice against our neighbor is the same as recognizing global injustice against our home.
