Why Should
Church Schools = Eco Schools?
Why bother with the environment?

Why bother with the environment:

• When so many adults and children are totally ignorant of the Gospel? After all
• we already have a commission - "Go therefore and make disciples of all
• nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." Matthew 28:19-20 (RSV)
  
• When there is so much to do to teach Christians the basics of the faith?
  
• When there are so many people around us needing to feel God's care through us?
  
• When there is such injustice to fight in the name of Christ?
  
• When we are so busy and tired?

Theologically

• God we love and worship created the world, our environment, and cares about it.
  
• God cared enough to create a world that was good. (Gen. 1-3)
  
• God has put us over the rest of creation. A special responsibility. (Gen. 1)
  
• "Because of the Incarnation, I salute all remaining matter with reverence." (St John of Damascus)
  
• God cared enough to send his Son to die not only for us but for the restoration of the whole of creation (Rom. 8:22-23)
  
• God's mission in Jesus is to restore humanity to:
  1. A proper relationship with Him. This includes a proper relationship with ourselves. He made us and sustains us
  2. A proper relationship with creation - God made it of himself, is in it, and sustains it. From that fact - All life is precious.
• The Salvation wrought by Jesus is in community not alone. We are saved not as individuals, not as a species but as part of the salvation of creation as a whole. We are all bound up together. "In Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28 (RSV) Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, and everything in between. All creation, including us continue because God so chooses. God did not stop creating at the dawn of time. God Father, Son and Holy Spirit keeps on creating, sustaining the life of all that is.
  
• Lack of concern for the environment is now affecting the well-being of all people on earth, with the weakest and most vulnerable most being hardest hit. Therefore environmental action is also social action.

Practically
Why bother with the environment:

• Self preservation and self interest.
  
• To show that important secular issues, such as the environment, are important
• to Christians and that we have something to add.
  
• To show by our words and action that there is a creator God and that He cares.
  
• To encourage or build links with the local community and church.

is an opportunity for the Church and Church Schools to be at the forefront of this area of Educational Development.