A Green Team?

The past two Mondays, St. Stephen’s co-hosted a Climate Conversation with Delaware Interfaith Power and Light. The intention was for the church to actually host the conversation on-site with vendors, speakers, and lunch gatherings in Trolley Square. Unfortunately, due to COVID, we were unable to host an in-person gathering. Thankfully, through technology, we were able to host using Zoom. This gave us the ability to have speakers from across the country join us and to talk about the current climate/environmental crisis. One does not need to be a scientist to know that God has entrusted us to care for the earth - to care for the work of God’s creation.

In the 8th Psalm, after surveying the wonders of God’s finger...the moon, the stars, the heavens...the Psalmists asks this question of God:

“What are human beings, that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

Who are we, the psalmist wonders, that God gave any regard for? Who are we that God entrusted this beauty of creation to us../mere mortals?

And yet, as we know from Genesis, God did entrust everything to our care. Our care, not our domination or abuse, but our care. The breathtaking beauty of the mountains and oceans to the smallest dust and stone of the desert, God put into our trust. One does not need to be a scientist to know that we have been neglectful of the world God gave us.

We profit from a world that was freely given to us - and if we are to take our scriptures seriously - we need to address the abuse of that world. If we look at the task ahead of us it seems insurmountable. Yet, individually, we have the opportunity to make huge strides in making this a better world. We can decrease our use of plastics, we can choose to bike or walk, we can opt to not litter.

As we begin to look at how we can treat our world as a holy place deserving the dignity God blessed it with, we can start having discussions on where St. Stephen’s fits into this global conversation. We, too, can have a green team that will look at how the church can be a better steward of the place it has been given. I look forward to engaging and talking with you all further in this endeavor that we are about to take.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jason