DALLAS: Interfaith environmental alliance aims for 'creation awareness'
Episcopal News Service. March 12, 2010 [031210-04]
Pat McCaughan
With Earth Day little more than a month away, Gary Stuard is stepping up the message he has been patiently but persistently sending to people of all faiths throughout the Dallas area: let's get together to save the environment.
"What's happening to the environment is a faith issue, a moral, spiritual issue … and religious people are late to the table," Stuard said during a recent telephone interview.
"I want to let people know that just changing their light bulbs can make a huge difference," he said. More specifically, he hopes congregations will "green themselves by providing creation awareness, creation care" including everything from banning Styrofoam cups at coffee hour to grass roots organizing for legislative action to combat global warming.
Most especially he wants to get clergy more involved in the organization he created about five years ago, the Interfaith Environmental Alliance (IEA). It has an ambitious goal of creating grass roots environmental awareness by mobilizing congregations for action.
"Clergy speaking out on this can have a tremendous impact," said Stuard, who is organizing a March 23 informational luncheon for Dallas-area clergy as well as other environmental awareness and Earth Day-related events.
The Rev. Virginia Holleman, associate rector of Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, recalled Stuard's helping to spark the congregation's shift to recycling. So much so that "when we built our new building over a year ago, as much as was economically feasible, we went green," she said.
"Gary is very passionate about the earth. But he's not a ranting, raving kind of passionate. He's very logical. He's done his homework, he knows what he's talking about," added Holleman about her former parishioner.
What's more, said Holleman, he engaged parishioners in letter-writing campaigns, and involved the Sunday school and youth groups. "Gary always made sure there was something for the kids to do, something to teach them about the environment."
And during church barbecues and other events, "his green team the always took care of recycling. He inspired us by his witness. Seeing someone like that gets you to realize maybe I need to think about what he's doing. It's got to start somewhere."
'Green' clergy needed to empower environmental activism
Stuard, now a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Dallas,is passionate about the issue, which he likens to the 1960s civil rights and united farm workers movements.
He contacts churches, synagogues, temples, and makes himself available for adult forums and informational workshops. Last year, he helped start a chapter in nearby Tarrant County and is reaching out to Houston, Waco and scouting possibilities in Austin. He hopes to grow into a statewide organization
"The goal is to get congregational members, people who are willing to work on the issue and educate their congregations about green activities. The goal is ultimately to get entire congregations involved."
But, he added that: "It's been a slow process … it's not on people's radar, even for the clergy. People aren't very well-educated about it and I'm talking about educated people."
Tops on his hit list: Texas' coal-burning power plants and natural gas drilling. "Texas is number one in the United States and number seven in the world in the production of greenhouse gases," he said. "We have a huge moral responsibility because of the impact we are having on the world's ecosystem."
Stuard, who is a full-time research study coordinator at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said both air and water pollution have also taken a local toll, exposing residents to pollutants and emissions. "One of the leading causes, if not the leading cause, of children's admissions to the hospital where I work is asthma," he said.
"People are dying because of it (pollution). Our health is being jeopardized because of it. Our children's health is undermined and the future of our children is being undermined by the pollution, as well as the climate change," he said.
The Rev. Paul Roach, pastor of the Unity Church of Fort Worth, worked with Stuard to help organize the Fort Worth-Tarrant County chapter a year ago.
"In Fort Worth or Tarrant County, there's this big push for natural gas. There's been a natural gas shortage and they've been putting up gas wells in neighborhoods right next to people's homes. There have been real problems with air and water pollution," Staurd said.
Roach estimated that about 15 congregations have affiliated with the IEA chapter, "but only about eight are active.
"Most churches are into recycling but not fully understanding environmental and ecological issues," which complicates Roach's task.
"We are the first place in the United States to have fully-fledged urban gas drilling," he said. "We have 1,000 wells within the city limits and there are plans for 5,000 wells. As you can imagine, that's a huge disruption to an urban setting. Basically, they've been able to drill without any zone restrictions."
Even still, organizing for environmental activism "is a complicated issue and a slow process," said Roach. He'd just come from a demonstration at the local courthouse in support of a resident fighting Chesapeake Energy gas company's efforts "to put a gas pipeline down the front yards of homes on streets in Fort Worth. They want to take his home by eminent domain and it's turned into a grudge match."
But Roach said IEA wants to focus less on grudge matches and more strategic activism. "We want have to educate folks in each church that we can make a difference. This is not a tree-hugger, dirt-worshipper kind of thing. This is essential that we do these things."
One of the biggest hurdles—he is the only active Tarrant County clergy member of the organization, Roach said. "To be truly empowered we will need more active committed clergy but it's hard to get that involvement."