Stirred Up, and Stirred Into the Good News
Reflections on a Ministry of Creation Care
by Bob Simpson
Our lives are made up of a collection of memories. But many memories get buried over time. Once in a while, however, God takes the opportunity to stir up a memory. Perhaps to stir us in new ways, and to propel us further into the Gospel. For me, Silver Lake is one of those memories.
“Ice on Silver Lake” was a December 1969 headline in the Berkshire Eagle, my hometown newspaper in western Massachusetts. At first glance, it was a humdrum small-town headline. Average temperatures in December always dropped below freezing. Every lake and pond froze over this time of year — except for Silver Lake. In fact, the year 1969 was the first time in almost thirty years ice formed on Silver Lake — and all because of a union strike. For years a huge corporation (which we locals called “the company”) had been using polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at their enormous transformer facility, discharging used PCBs into Silver Lake, which when I was growing up steamed like a wizard’s cauldron, especially in winter. I had never known Silver Lake any other way.
But this year was different. The electrical workers’ union had organized a strike against the company. For more than three months, the thousands of people who worked in the plant amidst all those chemicals were now walking picket lines outside its gates. And it stirred things up. No workers meant no transformers produced, which meant no revenue for the company and no paychecks for the striking workers. There was animosity, especially as Christmas approached, disrupting the usually joyful holiday atmosphere.
But the disruption brought welcome changes. For the first time in decades, no toxic waste was discharged, and ice formed on Silver Lake. By mid-February 1970, the strike was settled and things returned to normal until 1987 when the company closed its transformer operations and left town. What remained were enormous vacant buildings, thousands of unemployed people, and a lake and river contaminated with PCBs, which the federal government banned in 1979. It was an environmental, social, and economic debacle. I hadn’t thought of this episode for decades, but recalling it now, I see it as a microcosm of our current environmental crisis.
The passage from Hebrews 10:23–25 calls us to “stir up one another to love.” In order for me to stir up others to love creation, love must first be stirred up within me. I was fifteen years old the year ice formed on the lake. I had completely forgotten about Silver Lake, but this Lenten season, the memory and meaning of it were stirred up inside me. As a part of the Creation Care ministry at St. Luke’s Fort Collins, I joined a six-week spiritual formation study called A Life of Grace for the Whole World — A Study Course on the House of Bishops’ Pastoral Teaching on the Environment. The very first teaching, “A Time for Repentance and Renewal,” is a “call for confession, compassion, and attention to the present crisis of the earth.”
When the memory of Silver Lake surfaced, it stirred up the shocking reality of how I had come to accept steaming, foul-smelling, toxic water as normal. It stirred up how little I cared about the livelihood of those factory workers and their picket lines. It stirred up the realization of eco-injustice and negligence that prevailed right under my nose. But it also stirred up the power of Sabbath: if we choose to reverse our obsessive pursuit of productivity, God shows us that true “normal” is something as simple as ice on a lake in the winter. If the story of Silver Lake is a microcosm of our current environmental crisis, then we must “hold firmly to the hope we claim to have” as followers of Jesus as we seek solutions.
As the Lenten season unfolded, Mother Krista Dias extended a parish-wide invitation to take the Episcopal Creation Care Pledge. During worship on Earth Day Sunday, we joined together saying, “As the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, we long to grow loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with the whole of God’s creation. Together, we pledge to protect and renew the Earth and all who call it home.” I find those words beautiful and inspiring. It sounds like the Gospel to my ears. With God’s help, that’s what I want this chapter of my faith journey to be about.
But the pledge asks for more: for each of the ways to grow in relationship — loving, liberating, life-changing — we are asked to make a specific commitment to action, and were encouraged at St. Luke’s to think and pray about that during Lent. As a result, my commitment to share my own stories of love and concern for the earth with others is specific, and I formulated it as follows:
Because I want to share my strong love of God and God’s creation, I will have at least five creation care–related conversations every week. They may be about climate change, eco-justice, spiritual moments I’ve experienced in the created world, or how the Holy Spirit has guided me to this ministry of creation care. In every conversation, I commit to listening in love to the perspective and experience of the other person.
Additional commitments to stand for eco-justice and for changing my personal habits of consumption are equally specific. If I am serious about the Creation Care Pledge, I believe I am responding to the call from Hebrews to “stir up to love…and to help and encourage one another” in our communal walk in Christ.
The bishops’ study course continues with teachings about justice and sustainability, about our part in God’s creation, our traditions and faith practices, and how to draw upon them in order to speak and act on behalf of God’s creation. As one new to the Episcopal tradition, I find the teaching compelling. Throughout the course are calls to commitment, and St. Luke’s Fort Collins is responding. We are being stirred up and stirred into the Gospel as it is lived out through our congregation in many tangible ways. Several of us recently joined a protest against a fracking plan that would endanger residential areas in Loveland. Three of our members completed GreenFaith training, and we are actively investigating local and national advocacy opportunities and how best to enroll in them.
A weekly “Climate News” column offers abstracts of climate related current events from the nonprofit Grist. Our youth group has plans to screen the documentary Youth v. Gov, about how America’s youth are taking action to preserve and advocate for their own future in the face of climate change. Plans are underway for the transformation of our church building to achieve net-zero emissions by employing geo-thermal energy and a solar panel array. In care of those who call earth home, St. Luke’s has a strong contingent serving in the Faith Family Hospitality ministry, which offers compassion, safety, and shelter to families dealing with temporary homelessness. Our Creation Care Ministry Team has created a labyrinth on our grounds and is planning prayer walks, nature hikes, bike rides, and xeriscaping. We are being stirred up and into God’s love for us and our love of God’s good creation.
Each week in worship I affirm my faith through the Nicene Creed. I say, “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ who is of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.” If I truly believe that all things were made through Jesus Christ, then caring for creation — however I do that — means I am caring for Him. And whenever we care for someone, our relationship with that person deepens. As a person of faith, what could be better than a deeper connection with Jesus Christ? With a connection like that, surely loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with the whole of God’s creation are possible, just like ice on Silver Lake!
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BOB SIMPSON is a parishioner and Creation Care Team member at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Fort Collins.
