STEWARDS OF CREATION

The New Mexico Conference of Churches’ Eco-Justice Working Group, the Office of Social Justice for the Ardiocese of Santa Fe and the Diocese of Las Cruces have created a partnership to respond to the urgent challenge: How will faith communities in New Mexico participate in shaping the values and ethics for the Care of the Creation in the 21st century?

Funded by a grant from the Beldon Foundation, Stewards of Creation responds to that challenge by developing the necessary leadership for faith communities in New Mexico to become centers of Earth Stewardship through project based learning, spiritual motivation, advocacy that values the earth and ethical formation that sustains the long-term efforts required by such a project.

At the present, 20 persons are being recruited to enter into a year-long training process. These 20 persons will form a learning community and for one year engage intentionally in spiritual formation, study and project preparation.

Beginning in September the learning community will gather once a month to explore major environmental themes which are particular to the New Mexico context.

By revitalizing the biblical image of steward, the project gives participants a frame of reference for a spiritually nourished, theologically grounded, practically oriented ministry:

“The coming age is to be seen as the age of stewardship: we are here not to govern and exploit but to maintain and creatively transform, and to carry on the torch of (God’s Intentions)…” (D. Hall, The Steward, p. 10)

The word “steward” comes into the English language as stig (house) ward (keeper). It is based on the Greek word for steward, oikonomos, which designates the one who is responsible for maintaining the whole household.

The steward exists not only to serve his or her master, but also serves those whose interests the master has at heart. Faith communities are stewarding communities.

Thomas Berry has defined this task as the Great Work. “The Great Work now as we move into a new millennium is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in mutually beneficial manner.

“As we enter the 21st Century, we are experiencing a moment of grace. Such moments are privileged moments. The great transformations of the universe occur at such times. The future is defined in some enduring pattern of its functioning.

“We are now experiencing a moment of significance far beyond what any of us can imagine. What can be said is the foundations of a new historical period, the Ecozoic Era have been established in every realm of human affairs.

The vision has been set in place. The distorted dream of an industrial technological paradise is being replaced by the more viable dream of a mutually enhancing human presence within an ever-renewing organic-based Earth community.

The dream drives the action. In the larger cultural context the dream becomes the story that both guides and drives the action (The Great Work).

An informational brochure, About the Stewards Program, along with materials and application form may be secured from Wallace Ford, project coordinator.