By Anne W. Semmes
The Rev’d Marek Zabriskie has served three and a half years as rector of Christ Church Greenwich that has shown growth under his leadership during a difficult time of COVID. But that leadership is now expanding to address an even greater challenge – climate change that he sees as “the number one issue in our world today.” “But if we don’t get the climate issue right,” he says. “it’s possible that none of us will be alive on the planet in say 100 years – we might create an intolerable climate for human life.”
Thus, on Earth Day Zabriskie is launching his new book, “The Creation Care Bible Challenge – A 50-Day Bible Challenge ” wherein individuals he has chosen reflect on that critical need for care of the earth as related to a passage from the Bible. His book he says, “is timed to go well during the Easter season, which is 50 days.”
Zabriskie had reached out to “people around the globe” for their suggestions on leaders in “creation care.” “I’m not a leader in the field, ” he tells, “I’m just a concerned clergyman. And these are people who’ve dedicated the last 20-30 years or more of their lives to this huge issue.”
Zabriskie states in his Preface, “Christianity demands that we critically rethink our lifestyles, our use of resources, our attachment to creation, and our theology and mission.” He addresses how Christianity has historically been accused of “supporting environmental degradation,” viewing “humans as dominant over nature.” But plain to see in his book, is how those chosen 50 Biblical passages are shown to state otherwise, with additional “Biblical Texts About Creation Care” listed at the back of the book.
“The key thing here,” Zabriskie tells, ” is that throughout most of Christianity, the focus has always been on the individual – my personal salvation, your salvation, helping one individual sinner get his or her life right with God, and everything else was kind of an afterthought. And what we, if you may call us, green theologians are introducing is the idea that all of life is sacred. A little bit like how Native Americans view creation. And there’s really nothing in the Bible that lifts up humans as being better than anything else in creation.”
His “Creation Care Bible Challenge” offers, he says, “A new way of beginning to look at scripture and seeing what was there all along. And the overall thrust is that we are called to be stewards of creation, not to dominate and use it as we please.”
The eclectic mix of contributors in his book includes artist-writer-naturalist James Prosek. “He’s someone,” notes Zabriskie, “who has enormous care and love for creation. He’s known as the Audubon of Trout. He’s written maybe a dozen books on fly fishing and given talks all over the world.” Others come from the UK, South Africa, and New Zealand, and from his own congregation. “Jane Snowden is a scientist for IBM, who was on the small team that did all the scientific work to determine how IBM could safely reopen following COVID.”
And starting this Sunday, April 24, will be a “Creation Care Series,” the first of six Sunday Forums emphasizing the Christian responsibility to “take care of God’s great earth.” “It will finalize on Memorial Day with Bill McKibben,” says Zabriskie. “He wrote the very first book on climate change in the world. And he’s a very, very significant figure, He teaches at Middlebury College, and he runs an organization called ‘360’.”
To engage his congregation, Zabriskie has formed a Creation Care Committee. “It will not only look at what we can do as a parish, but it will educate for what we can do in our own homes to be more environmentally friendly with what we purchase.” And how they can take that creative care outside to their back yards.
To head up that Committee he named, “Karen Royce, a longtime member of the congregation with a passion for environmental care, and Stewart Lindsay who has worked for The Nature Conservancy for years and is now the vice president for Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability for Campbell’s Soup. We hope to look at things as, perhaps banning all use of plastic or at least plastic bottles on our campus; that we might ensure we use LED lights throughout all of our buildings; that we may eventually put solar panels on some of our buildings.” He cites the new Neighbor to Neighbor facility on his church campus as having installed solar panels.
Zabriskie looks beyond his church campus as well. “If we are able to interest and impact some of the leadership in Greenwich who run firms on Wall Street, etc., our impact may be much wider than we anticipate.” He tells of such an impacting incident in his last parish outside Philadelphia. “The head of a college who was a member of our church was so taken by the amount of plastic water bottles that are used every year as mentioned in one of our talks that he made sure his college stopped using plastic water bottles effective immediately.”
Even the Christ Church Preschool figures in Zabriskie’s green initiative that has been aided by the effects of the pandemic. “So, during COVID,” he tells, “We moved as much as possible of our curriculum and programming for the Preschool outdoors. On the side of the school, we built a garden for the children to care for and learn about plants and creation.” That exposure to the soil and touching nature, they found strengthened children’s immune systems, he says. “They tend to be healthier, growing up.” He’s hoping that Creation Care Committee “will have an impact on our preschool, Sunday school, and youth group – to educate people of all ages about the need for creation care.”
Rev’d Marek Zabriskie’s book, “The Creation Care Bible Challenge” is available at the Dogwood Book Store at Christ Church Greenwich, or online at Amazon.
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