Christians reflect on Good Friday/Earth Day concurrence

Proponents say that planting trees and
meditating on ways humanity has wounded the earth can parallel devotions that
mark Jesus' sacrifice, but opponents say that a political message, even a
pagan one, is being pushed onto sacred territory.

"This year's Earth
Day falls on Good Friday. This is a right and appropriate occasion to remember
the cross, which was made out of trees, leads us from bondage to liberation,
death to life," said the National Council of Churches in India, which groups
30 Orthodox and Protestant churches.

The NCCI suggested that
congregations plant trees in church compounds and include Sunday School
children. Congregations were reminded to thank God "for trees and forests,
which breathe in our carbon wastage and produce life-giving oxygen for us to
live."

Earth Day has been observed on 22 April since 1970 and is
considered one of the seminal events in the modern environmental movement;
Good Friday is on a different date each year since it moves according to the
observance of Easter.

In the U.S., the Episcopal Church, based in New
York, has compiled resources for incorporating earth-care themes into services
and celebrations, according to Episcopal News Service.

Mike Schut, the
church's economic and environmental affairs officer, said that "on Good Friday
... might we suggest that when earth is degraded, when species go extinct,
that another part of God's body experiences yet another sort of crucifixion --
that another way of seeing and experiencing God is diminished."

At the
Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Journal reported that a task force
called Greening Anglican Spaces compiled a Good Friday Earth Day Reflection in
which theologian Christopher Lind writes, "in our callous disregard for the
needs of all living beings, we have put the Earth upon the cross. [Good
Friday] is the day for us to recognize our guilt in perpetuating injustice
against our partners in creation and confess it."

However, comments on
the Anglican Journal website ranged from "the connection between the
crucifixion of our Lord and the desecration of the Earth is obvious" from the
Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck to "paganism [is] creeping into the church," from Jack
S. Pratt. Olive Dunn wrote that, "whilst the care of God's creation is
important, nothing should detract from the marvel of Our Lord Jesus Christ's
sacrifice for sin."

On a Christian website called www.crosswalk.com,
television host and author Jerry Newcombe wrote that "[putting] the
celebration of Earth Day with grave concerns over global warming at the same
level of Christ crucified seems terribly misguided to me" since it
"trivializ[es] the commemoration of the greatest act of love in
history."