Churches Across Faith Traditions Plant 12,000 Trees

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, April 23, 2009

In keeping with the biblical mandate to care for God's creation, thousands of people from ten faith traditions have come together to plant 12,000 trees in northern Michigan.

About 100 congregations from Presbyterian, Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist Church, Jewish, and Quaker traditions, among others, and nonprofit organizations are participating in a tree project led by the interfaith coalition Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers.

Volunteers planted the first of 12,000 12- to 16-inch White Spruce and Red Pine trees during the blessing of the trees ceremony on Wednesday in observance of Earth Day.

"This is about more than putting trees in the ground – it's an expression by the faith communities of love and care for God's creation," said Kyra Fillmore, Catholic Earth Keeper team member and the project's communications coordinator for faith communities, according to the Presbyterian News Service.

Thousands of volunteers will be picking up tree seedlings on May 2 and planting the equivalent of a forest across 400 miles the following day.

"Our interfaith tree-planting effort is more than another conservation project," said the Rev. Jon Magnuson, co-founder of the Earth Keeper initiative and executive director of the Cedar Tree Institute, as reported by the Presbyterian News Service. "With prayers, hymns and the blessing of 12,000 seedlings, it's a gentle proclamation of a new consciousness and commitment among our faith communities to care for God's creation."

Being stewards of God's creation has taken on greater significance as more Christians view global warming as a serious problem.

According to a Pew Research Center survey from July 2006, 78 percent of white mainline Protestants, 68 percent of white evangelicals and 86 percent of Catholics believe global warming is a serious problem. Nearly half of all Catholics and 40 percent of white mainline Protestants say it's "very serious."

Earlier findings by the Pew Center showed that for Catholics and mainline Protestants, protecting the environment takes priority over abortion and gay marriage concerns. For white evangelicals, the environment still ranks below the cultural issues.

Nevertheless, the Pew Center found a fairly strong consensus across faith traditions on regulations to protect the environment in contrast to other issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

"[T]here is a religious, moral, scientific, and an historic national consensus on the abiding priority of environmental stewardship," reads a statement by the Eco-Justice Program office of the National Council of Churches that has been signed by faith leaders across denominations and traditions. "[R]eligious Americans everywhere increasingly recognize an overarching obligation for faithfulness in caring for God's creation."

For previous Earth Day observances, the Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers hosted collection sites across northern Michigan, removing almost 370 tons of household hazardous waste from the environment.