Our Understanding of Creation and the Work of Sustainable Stewardship is:

The Adult Christian Formation Opportunity at Christ Episcopal Church Matagorda has prioritized the bullets from the Bishop’s list and we are working through them one at a time as a part of our exercises to be better able to share the faith.

The group chose 6th : “• our understanding of creation and the work of sustainable stewardship is:”

Try it for yourself:

Complete the following:

(extra credit for short answers using only terms a seeker would understand in their ordinary every-day sense.)

"This unique Episcopal witness is articulated through the words of our Baptismal Covenant:"

• our understanding of creation and the work of sustainable stewardship is:

Materials reviewed:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  John 1

O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

BCP 259

Celebrant

Do you believe in God the Father?

People

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

BCP 304

We first discussed our understanding of Creation.

We distinguished our understanding from both Creationism and Deism. Likewise we rejected secular environmentalism as idolatry, worshiping the creation.

Examining John 1, we heard the Word speaking from Eternity into Temporality, out of timelessness into time. With imperfect understanding we discerned that the Word, spoken in eternity, continues to create throughout all time.

In this Continuous Creation we are creatures, created things, but because we share in the divine image we have an active role in creation as well.

Some time was spent in articulation of our role, with the conclusion that we reject the co-creator nomenclature in favor of sub-creators.

We reviewed the role of the human Steward as a transition to the second section of the work. Several fruitful insights were brought up from the works of J R R Tolkien, notably the Steward of Gondor in LOTR and the sub-creator discussion in Mythopoeia:

            Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light

            through whom is splintered from a single White

            to many hues, and endlessly combined

            in living shapes that move from mind to mind.

            Though all the crannies of the world we filled

            with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build

            Gods and their houses out of dark and light,

            and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right

            (used or misused). The right has not decayed.

            We make still by the law in which we're made.

We discerned that a steward who has the powers of sub-creation has a greater power to make-or-mar than a simple custodian. In this discussion the parable of the talents was enlightening. Matt. 25:14

We discussed the appropriate contrast to Sustainable Stewardship. Both Wasting and Consuming were considered. It was finally decided that this was a distinction without a difference.

Since coffee was at hand, the great porcelain/styrofoam debate was briefly revisited, with the beneficial insight that, the only truly wrong position is that of thoughtlessness.

So our answer was:

our understanding of creation and the work of sustainable stewardship is:

• Creation is the ongoing work of God.
• God's love in creation, accomplished by His Word,is inseparable from His love for us in Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word.
• We have a gift of power as sub-creators, and a corresponding obligation of responsibility as stewards.
• We exercise our power responsibly only when we remain mindful of our role.