Grist online environmental magazine recently reported a surge of ecological concern among evangelical Christians and predicted (hoped? prayed?) it could invigorate the fight against climate change and even boost the environmental movement as a whole. Welcome to the flock, Grist. The Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment, which includes representatives from all the major religions and many of the minor ones as well, for years has been talking about protecting the Creator's creation. The coalition's ninth-annual Caring for Creation Interfaith Conference—open to all—explores “the moral imperative of all people of faith to address the urgent environmental problems facing humankind.”
The leader of the Creation Spirituality movement whose objective is to deepen appreciation for the sacredness of all creation, Matthew Fox, gives a keynote address titled “Sacred Earth, Sustainable Lives: Becoming Spiritual Warriors on the Earth's Behalf.” Fox, who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years and has authored 28 books, contends that the ecological crisis is in many ways a spiritual crisis. The conference also features Native American prayer and dancing from Dancing Peacock; representatives of the world's faiths giving environment-tinged spiritual readings; and workshops with such titles as “Responding to Energy Vulnerability,” “Healthy Religion and a Forthcoming Environmental Renaissance,” and “Protecting Current N Future Generations: Exposure to Toxics.” Thank God: while praying for rain, it's now okay to toss in reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Ninth-annual Caring for Creation Interfaith Conference at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1221 Wass St., Tustin; www.geocities.com/ocice_eco_faith/. RSVP by calling Sherri Loveland at (714) 552-0333 or Margaret Henke at (714) 731-6775. Sat., 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. $25-$50.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.