A letter from Tim Carriker in Brazil
july 2014 - Environmental Responsibility
There I was in the small village of São Mamede, in the interior of Northeast Brazil, some 1,800 miles north of our home. There the climate is always warm and the region characterized by long periods of draught. I had been asked to speak for a few days to a group of pastors and missionaries of a regional denomination I did not previously know. The topic was Biblical foundations for what we have come to call “creation care,” basically Christian social environmental responsibility. The invitation came from a Christian environmental non-governmental organization called A Rocha (“the rock” in Portuguese), which I have served as a voluntary chaplain for about seven years. The reception was warm and the audience open and responsive. I probably learned more from them than they did from me. They were already integrating church planting in dire rural circumstances with environmentally responsible small-farming techniques and water gathering as concrete examples of a holistic approach to living out the gospel. You may wonder what all this has to do with our partnership with the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil and how that fits in with the PC(USA)’s own sense of global mission. I’ll try to explain…
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Northeastern leaders
The PC(USA) has recently articulated three Critical Global Initiatives for ministry around the world: addressing the root causes of poverty, especially as it affects women and children; sharing the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ through evangelism and discipleship; and being agents of reconciliation amid cultures of violence, including our own. The Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, our Brazilian partner, is very sympathetic with this view and has developed holistic ministries for years. Through the ministry of A Rocha, primarily a group of Christian scientists, the church became aware of the connection between current environmental challenges and poverty and social strife. They responded a few years ago by producing Sunday School materials and denominational publications—the first Brazilian denomination to do so. The connection between environmental and social issues is not always initially apparent, but does not require too much effort to explain. For instance, Brazil is often referred to as a “Belgium in the middle of Bangladesh,” referring to the presence of a wealthy, industrially developed southern region coexistent with the Northeastern interior impoverished dry lands. Where water is brought in or collected in the Northeast, poverty diminishes.
The connection to reconciliation also is apparent once we realize just how much social strife on local, national and world levels occurs over the domination of certain natural resources. Because of this intimate connection, Marina da Silva, Brazilian senator and ex-Minister of the Environment, promoted the notion of “socio-environmental” responsibility.
To give you an example of the depth of discussion, two ideas we discussed were sustainability and environmental racism. Here is how the group defined these two issues.
Sustainability
Sustainability does not refer only to the conscientious and efficient use of natural resources. It is also the reduction of levels of poverty, the creation of employment and income, the reduction of inequalities and violence, and the democratization of information and decisions.
Environmental racism
Environmental racism refers to social and environmental injustices that bear especially on vulnerable ethnic groups and on other communities discriminated by their ethnicity (race), origin or color. In Brazil these are indigenous peoples, remnants of black slave communities, traditional populations such as river or coastal communities, hillbillies isolated by dams, and also Negro populations, northeasterners, and the urban poor.
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Tim leading a session
Just these two definitions, I think, illustrate the connections that were made and the relevance for Christian ministry. As I mentioned above, to my surprise, these were not far-fetched ideas for this otherwise remote group of Christian leaders. They already had a decade-or-two history of holistic ministry in their own communities but were anxious to hear and learn more.
When I was first approached by A Rocha several years ago, I was unsure if I should—or even could, from the perspective of my assignment with the PC(USA) to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, IPCB—accept their invitation to assist them occasionally as their “chaplain.” But this connection has actually enriched our partnership with the IPCB and all of us have grown in a deeper understanding of our faith and a more compassionate exercise of our ministries.
Once again, we are able to do what we do because you support us. Please know that we are grateful to you for that and invite you to continue supporting us and the PC(USA) in its global mission.
Tim
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.61
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