The Abuse of Nature is a Sin
by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Barholomew I

Address of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew delivered at the Symposium on the Sacredness of the Environment held at the Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Santa Barbara, California, on November 8, 1997.

Here in this historical city of Santa Barbara, we see before us a brilliant example of the wonder of God's creation. Recently, that God-given beauty was threatened by an oil spill.

The Ecumenical Throne of Orthodoxy today renews its long-standing commitment to healing the environment. We have followed with great interest and sincere concern, the efforts to curb the destructive effects that human beings have wrought upon the natural world. We view with alarm the dangerous consequences of humanity's disregard for the survival of God's creation.

Since 1989, every September 1st - the beginning of the [Orthodox] ecclesiastical calendar - has been designated as a day of prayer for the protection of the environment.

Our sin toward the world, or the spiritual root of all our pollution, lies in our refusal to view life and the world as a sacrament of thanksgiving, and as a gift of constant communion with God on a global scale.

We believe that our first task is to raise the consciousness of adults who most use the resources and gifts of the planet. Ultimately, we must perceive our every action as having a direct effect upon the future of the environment. Human beings and the environment form a seamless garment of existence; a complex fabric that we believe is fashioned by God.

The entire universe participates in a celebration of life, which St. Maximos the Confessor described as a "cosmic liturgy." We see this cosmic liturgy in the symbiosis of life's rich biological complexities. As human beings, created "in the image and likeness of God" (Gen. 1:26), we are called to recognize this interdependence between our environment and ourselves.

There is also an ascetic element in our responsibility toward God's creation. This asceticism requires from us a voluntary restraint, in order for us to live in harmony with our environment. Asceticism offers practical examples of conservation.

By reducing our consumption - [called] in Orthodox Theology encratia or self-control - we come to ensure that resources are left for others in the world [and we] demonstrate a concern for the Third World and developing nations. Our abundance of resources will be extended to include an abundance of equitable concern for others.

Encratia frees us of our self-centered neediness, that we may do good works for others. We do this out of a personal love for the natural world around us. We are called to work in humble harmony with creation and not in arrogant supremacy against it.

Asceticism provides an example whereby we may live simply. Asceticism is not a flight from society and the world, but a communal attitude of mind and way of life that leads to the respectful use, and not the abuse, of material goods. Excessive consumption issues from a world-view of estrangement from self, from land, from life, and from God. Consuming the fruits of the earth unrestrained, we become consumed ourselves, by avarice and greed. Excessive consumption leaves us emptied; out-of-touch with our deepest self. Asceticism is a corrective practice, a vision of repentance. Such a vision will lead us… to a world in which we give, as well as take from creation.

We lovingly suggest to all the people of the Earth, that they seek to help one another to understand the myriad ways in which we are related to the Earth and to one another. In this way, we may begin to repair the dislocation many people experience in relation to creation.

Many human beings have come to behave as materialistic tyrants. Those that tyrannize the Earth are themselves, sadly, tyrannized.

If human beings treated one another's personal property the way they treat their environment, we would view that behavior as anti-social. We would impose the judicial measures necessary to restore wrongly appropriated personal possessions. It is therefore appropriate for us to seek ethical [and] legal recourse in matters of ecological crimes.

It follows that, to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation; for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands…; for humans to injure other humans with disease…; for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its land, its air and its life, with poisonous substances - these are sins.

[Since the Kyoto conference on climate change] there has been much debate about who should and should not have to change the way they use the resources of the Earth. Many nations are reluctant to act unilaterally. This self-centered behavior is a symptom of our alienation from one another and from the context of our common existence.

We are urging a different and, we believe, a more satisfactory ecological ethic. This ethic is shared with many of the religious traditions represented here. All of us hold the Earth to be the creation of God [who] placed the newly created human "in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to guard it" (Genesis 2:15). He imposed on humanity a stewardship role in relationship to the Earth. How we treat the Earth and all of creation defines the relationship that each of us has with God. It is also a barometer of how we view one another. For if we truly value a person, we are careful as to our behavior toward that person.

It is with that understanding that we call on the world's leaders to take action to halt the destructive changes to the global climate that are being caused by human activity. We must be spokespeople for an ecological ethic that reminds the world that it is not ours to use for our own convenience. It is God's gift of love to us and we must return his love by protecting it and all that is in it.

The Lord suffuses all of creation with His Divine presence in one continuous legato from the substance of atoms to the Mind of God. Let us renew the harmony between Heaven and Earth, and transfigure every detail, every particle of life. Let us love one another - and lovingly learn from one another - for the edification of God's people, for the sanctification of God's creation, and for the glorification of God's most holy Name. Amen.

In 1991, the Ecumenical Throne convened the first annual Ecological Seminar at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity on Halki. In 1997, the church convened a trans-national conference on the Black Sea ecological crisis. For more information, contact the [Ecumenical Throne] at [8-10 E. 79th St., N.Y., NY 10021, www.patriarchate.org].