RESOLUTION – R11

Title:Declaration of Ecological Sabbath Year

Original Source:Church in society and world affairs committees, sponsors of the Renewal of Earth Task Group

Conference Action:Carried

Financial Implications:

Source of Funds:

Staffing Implications:perhaps a repository for and sharing vehicle for the stories of how congregations respond to and live out Sabbath resolution

Volunteer Implications: Imagination

MOTION by Brian Goodings/John Lawson that this 77th annual meeting of Toronto Conference

•declare the year Advent 2001 to Advent 2002 an ecological Sabbath;
•promote ideas and actions for congregations to take in declaring and living out an ecological Sabbath;
•promote the ecological Sabbath through Insight, Conference mailing, the Toronto Conference website, Church in society newsletter and other means of communication;
•dedicate a section of the Toronto Conference website to the ecological Sabbath;
•petition The United Church of Canada to declare an ecological Sabbath year before 2010, the end of the ecumenical decade to overcome violence: churches seeking reconciliation and peace.

RATIONALE AND FAITH BASE

The United Church of Canada and the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative have designated 2000-2001 in the Jubilee celebration as the year for renewing the earth. The focus of this year is to be upon finding ways "to live with respect in Creation" as The United Church of Canada Creed says.  The current Ten Days for Global Justice theme, "Give it a rest!” also focuses on finding more ecologically sound ways of living.  

The World Council of Churches has proclaimed 2001 to 2010 the ecumenical decade to overcome violence: churches seeking reconciliation and peace.  The Toronto Conference has undertaken to participate in the decade in a number of ways including a mutuality in mission project. The decade is a forum for examining violence within creation, even ecological violence, and seeking healing transformation.  This call for an ecological Sabbath is in keeping with our commitment to the decade.

The United Church of Canada has a history of responding to ecological concerns as evidenced by the 1992 publication, One Earth Community: Ethical Principles for Environment and Development (33rd General Council) which reads in part: We believe that creation is a gift of God.  Human societies must bear responsibility toward the Earth in its wholeness.

The Holy Scriptures frequently declare, as in Psalm 24:1 The Earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it.   The increasing awareness that we are living on sacred ground has been advanced by ecologically sensitive Christian writers like Sally McFague, David Hallman, Wendell Berry, Matthew Fox, James Nash and many others. As well, perceptive social critics such as Northrop Frye have named repressive nature ideologies forged out of our cultural traditions. Our cultural traditions, peculiarly for us the legacy of our Biblical and Christian inheritance, insist that nature was provided for the sake of humans, and that unlimited and uninhibited exploitation of nature has nothing to be said against it. It is time for anyone who still holds this view of nature to repent of it. The prophets speak of regeneration of nature and reconciliation with nature in the final restoration of Israel, but they emphasize that this can only take place after humans have stopped the destructive activities within themselves. We must see how deadly our destructive activities in nature are to all forms of life, including our own, and we must repent. A god who permits humankind unlimited and uninhibited exploitation of nature is not the God of the Bible who creates all and is blessed by all creation. The life of Christ lends new understanding to nurturing and serving love and continues to stretch our definitions of neighbour. The earth as a beautifully complex ecological entity has been called by some eco-theologians as the "new poor" or "neighbour", which we are called, by Christ, to love and serve without reservation.

Ecological awareness and love for all life is not completely new to the Christian tradition and is in keeping with some of the wonderful stories of the Desert Fathers, the Celtic Saints and especially with the life of people like St. Francis of Assisi. It is time to remember and rediscover their way.

The declaration of the United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program says:
We who have lost our sense and our senses- our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves; we call a halt.

We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest. We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion.
We declare a Sabbath, a space of quiet: for simply being and letting be, for recovering the great forgotten truths; for learning how to live again.

Any Ecological Sabbath decisions leading to action by congregations should not be decided without proper time given to prayer and reflection. The direction being sought is to come from communion with the holy, not purely from human intellect. As identified by David Hallman in his book Spiritual Values for Earth Community they should include deep consideration of values like gratitude, humility, sufficiency, justice, peace, love, faith and hope. To begin the shift from a consuming society that refuses to recognize any boundaries to one that embraces ecological responsibility and restraint will require study, prayer and imagination. Works by writers like those mentioned in this resolution, will need to be studied carefully at least as a starting point. We resist providing a list of actions for congregations to "complete" without first listening for the Spirit. This listening will mark the beginning of the long overdue, ecological Sabbath.