Fellowship program helps faith communities mobilize for environmental leadership

Lifestyle cover feature for The Commercial Appeal

Nov. 7, 2010

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'”

The passage from Genesis could be used by both sides of the environmentalism debate as to who has the right-of-way with regards to treatment of the land, sea and sky.

“We use the word ‘stewardship,’ which really has to do with care for one’s household,” said Jim Boyd, Episcopalian minister, president of Bridges and certified Green Faith Fellow. “For the most part, Protestant Christianity has used that to say, ‘God gave it to us, we can use it as we will,’ when its true meaning is very different from that.”

The Green Faith Fellow program was founded in 1992 in New Jersey by a coalition of Christian and Jewish leaders to “inspire, educate and mobilize people of diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership,” according to its website, greenfaith.org.

“What we do as a Green Faith Fellow is try to enlarge our frame of knowledge from within our religious traditions in such a way that we can bring that knowledge to bear on the issues and concerns that affect our communities and the natural world,” Boyd said … (read more)