When we connect to water, we connect to the sacred. This was true of the earliest Christians: baptism happened not in a convenient font but in the nearest river or stream.
To know one’s watershed is to know one’s place. Here in Northeast Ohio, we are keenly aware of the bodies of water that are near to us. We watch lake-effect storms roll in from Lake Erie, we recognize that the Cuyahoga River is both an economic engine and an ecological gift, we hike and walk near our neighborhood streams and creeks to be refreshed, indeed, to remember who we are.
Ched Myers is a self-proclaimed “activist theologian” who names our current ecological moment as a “watershed.” It’s a triple entendre that weaves theology, culture, and creation care into one vital call for awareness and action.
First, he suggests, we are in a watershed moment of climate and ecological crisis. From global warming to extractive industrial practices, our consumption and greed have set us on a dangerous path, yet our political leaders lack the will and the power to make needed changes.
Second, we are disciples of Jesus within our watersheds. This is a word about place: we might reclaim our human dignity by seeking common cause with those who live near us in the same watershed. This is a revision of what it means to be a “parish.” Our companions in Christ are not simply those who live in the same city or town or diocese, but rather they are also all those who live and worship along the banks of the Great Lakes or near the bend of the Cuyahoga.
Third, we are disciples of our watersheds. This means that we must learn from creation itself, from Indigenous people who have known a natural place for centuries, and from environmentalists and scientists who teach us how to care for our watersheds.
This is a deeply Christian perspective on environmentalism. It’s a call to root our discipleship in an awareness of the sacred in the waters that sustain us.
This Sunday, we will celebrate Earth Day in liturgy and song and also in a Dean’s Forum where we consider what an “ecospirituality” can mean. I hope you’ll join us for church…but I also hope you’ll give thanks this weekend for the water, and the watersheds, that sustain us all.
Faithfully,
