GA08097

Prayer essential for action on ecology

by Toya Richards Hill

SAN JOSE, June 25, 2008 — Prayer should be an essential tool for getting to the here and now, and to action, the Rev. Sam Hamilton-Poore told those gathered here June 24 for a luncheon held by Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC).

Prayer — be it silent, in corporate worship or whatever — is key to being present, he said. In prayer, “we seek to align ourselves with God.”

It was a message targeted at those gathered during the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in support of the PRC, “a grassroots community to help the church to educate and energize church members about the eco-justice crisis.”

PRC’s work includes recognizing the eco-justice achievements of individuals and groups, holding national eco-justice conferences and advocating for church and national eco-justice policies.

“Prayer and action. We can pray our way into a new way of acting,” said Hamilton-Poore, the author of Earth Gospel: A Guide To Prayer For God’s Creation.

“Prayer needs to be part of our work,” he said. “Prayer is one of the ways we get energized to keep doing this work.”

Prayer and worship certainly were the catalysts for the members of San Jose’s Foothill Presbyterian Church, which received PRC’s Restoring Creation Award on Tuesday.

Their decision to become a “green” church bubbled up from worship and has led to various actions, including recycling, creating an earth care task force, holding educational events and planting Moringa trees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Caring for the earth has been something that has unified us,” said the Rev. Ben Daniel, pastor of Foothill Presbyterian Church. “Caring for the earth has brought us together.”

Prayer also was used by the luncheon participants themselves in an effort to act on the crisis currently taking place because of flooding in the Mississippi Valley.

“This is certainly an eco-justice crisis,” Jenny Holmes, PRC moderator, said before the group prayed.

Hamilton-Poore urged the group to continue to “stay grounded in God.”

“We get tired,” he acknowledged. But “I think that’s why we need to keep praying.”