Aerial view of a church forest, also called coptic forest, in Ethiopia. (Google Earth)
An article I researched and wrote for the PLoS Blogs network about Ethiopia’s coptic forests published a few days ago. It starts like this:
In America, some fundamental Christians believe that man has a God-given right to use the earth and all its resources to meet their needs. After all, Genesis says so. But across the Atlantic, a different attitude prevails among followers in Ethiopia, which has the longest continuous tradition of Christianity of any African country. Followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Churches believe they should maintain a home for all of God’s creatures around their places of worship. The result? Forests ringing churches.
Read the whole piece here.
A lovely article! Thanks for the lesson on a part of nature I would never have known about. Though (minor quibble) I don’t think the lede is entirely fair — some U.S. Christians do believe that the Earth is humankind’s to plunder, but there’s also a strong green religious movement … and as you go on to point out in the article, the main threat to the church forests is now from their ostensible stewards.
Thanks Brandon, though I did not say that no Christian traditions in the U.S. protect nature; I wrote “some fundamental Christians.” Which formal fundamental Christian traditions in the U.S. actively protect nature? (Personally, I do not know of any.)
I quickly googled my parents’ denomination, which is (greek) eastern orthodox since I’ve always felt the church I was forced to attend at a young age was outspoken against pollution of all God’s creations, i.e. the body or environment.
I easily found corroboratory evidence:
2009-
“The Orthodox Diocese of Alaska, meeting at its annual Assembly at Saint Innocent Cathedral here, passed a unanimous resolution today, calling on state and federal agencies to deny permits to any “commercial or economic project” that threatens to damage or pollute the natural environment. ”
http://www.oca.org/news/1971
“The orthodox church involvement in the protection of the natural environment is a matter of faithfulness to her tradition and to her very nature.”
Cosmic Grace, Humble Prayer: The Ecological Vision of the Green Patriarch … By John Chryssavgis, advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on environmental issues.
While christians are heavily preoccupied with faith healing and finding god, their tenets dictate a naturalist outlook. Christians’ and other radical fundamentalists’ often documented failures (holy war, mega-church greed, violent anti-gay demonstrations, abortion clinic bombers) shouldn’t be held against the faith but rather the pathetic individuals manipulating the church from within.
In other words, blame the few loud radical idiots, not the silent pious masses.
Hi DeLene, I loved this article! To me it exemplifies how Christians ought to be engaged in these issues. I hope to read more about these church forests.
Many evangelical Christians (who you might call fundamental) are highly active in “creation care” issues like this. See this article in Christianity Today:
Trees Of Life
How Floresta integrates development discipleship, and creation care overseas.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/november/32.54.html