The 13th triennial meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) was convened at the University of Nottingham, England, on 19-28 June. Delegations addressed a comprehensive agenda of global issues, including environmental issues. The Rev. Canon Eric Beresford, a geneticist-priest and Convener of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN), delivered a report from the ACEN, which had met in April in Canberra.

The report declares, "It is clear from the reports of the represented Provinces, and the presentations of the scientists who spoke during the conference that humanity has failed to fulfil God's will for creation. The earth and everything therein now face perilous and catastrophic environmental destruction, often as a result of human activities. The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that our continued failure to protect the earth and to resolve economic injustices within and between societies will lead not only to environmental collapse but also to social collapse."

Addressing the ACC delegates, Canon Beresford added, "Justice and equity cannot be pursued effectively in a deteriorating environmental situation. This is a matter that effects all of us in a variety of way. It is also, I'm afraid, a reality that the greatest contributors to global climate change are not the greatest victims of global climate change. So, there is a disparity in the experience."

The report highlights the sealevel rise in the Pacific, the widening range of tropical disease vectors, the melting of glaciers and tundras, and the increasing variability of climate and its effect upon fragile ecosystems.

The report urges all Anglicans to:

• recognise that global climatic change is real and that we are contributing to the despoiling of creation.
• commend initiatives that address the moral transformation needed for environmentally sustainable economic practices such as the Contraction and Convergence process championed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
• understand that, for the sake of future generations and the good of God's creation, those of us in the rich nations need to be ready to make sacrifices in the level of comfort and luxury we have come to enjoy.
• expect mission, vision and value statements to contain commitment to environmental responsibility at all levels of church activity.
• educate all church members about the Christian mandate to care for creation.
• work on these issues ecumenically and with all faith communities and people of good will everywhere.
• ensure that the voices of women, indigenous peoples and youth are heard.
• press government, industry and civil society on the moral imperative of taking practical steps towards building sustainable communities.

• Include environmental education as an integral part of all theological training.
• Take targeted and specific actions to assess and reduce our environmental footprint, particularly greenhouse gas emissions. Such actions could include energy and resource audits, land management, just trading and purchasing, socially and ethically responsible investment.
• Promote and commit ourselves to use renewable energy wherever possible.
• Revise our liturgies and our calendar and lectionaries in ways that more fully reflect the role and work of God as Creator.
• Press for urgent initiation of discussions, which should include all nations, leading to a just and effective development beyond the Kyoto Protocol.
• Support the work of the World Council of Churches Climate Change Action Group.
• Bring before governments the imperative to use all means, including legislation and removal of subsidies, to reduce greenhouse gases.

5510 Huntington Pkwy, Bethesda, MD 20814.

report by Dr. Robert Garret, M.D., who is featured "In the Spotlight" below.

[This sermon was preached at the Episcopal/Lutheran Common Mission, Gualala, Cal., on Trinity Sunday by software engineer Dr. James Jordan. He is a member of the ST&F Network Steering Board and also the Executive Council's Committee on ST&F. He introduces himself "In the Spotlight" below.]

We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power. Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love. You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that, in obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule and serve all your creatures. Give us a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory. Amen.

For this feature, we invite our members to introduce themselves with short biographies. Please send your own bio-sketch to the editor. We will include your email address unless you specify otherwise.

• Dr. Robert Garrett
  family physician and ethicist, Assoc. Prof. Clinical Family Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City

Above, Robert Garrett


I am a lifelong Episcopalian, and a member of Trinity Church, Iowa City, Iowa. I have been a family physician for more than twenty years, and currently I am Associate Professor of Clinical Family Medicine in the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine. Since 2001, I have been Chair of the University of Iowa Hospital's clinical ethics committee.

I am married to Eileen C. Fisher, M.D. We have one son, Owen.

I am proud to be the son of the Rev. Dr. Samuel M. Garrett, late Professor of Church History at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.

I can be reached by email at robert-garrett@uiowa.edu.


• The Rev. Sr. Claire Lofgren OSH, SOSc
  spiritual director, Chapter Co-convener of the Society of Ordained Scientists

When I tell someone that I have an interest in faith and science I almost always get a response of surprise or disbelief: "They're opposites, aren't they?" "Really?" "Does your church allow that kind of thing?"

My answers are "No, yes and yes."

My interest in science goes back to childhood and I worked in medical research for a time as a young adult. I left that work about 20 years ago to become a priest. But my interest in science has never left and I've discovered that I am among a growing number who share an interest in the intersection between science and faith.



Above, Sr. Claire Lofgren with some other members of her chapter of the Society of Ordained Scientists

In the spring and summer of 2005 I was able to attend two gatherings of people who share my interest. The first was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, last April. It was really two meetings rolled in to one. The first day was devoted to the Steering Board of the Episcopal Church Network for Science Technology & Faith. This is rather loose association of laypeople and clergy in the Episcopal Church who have an interest in faith and science issues and who are willing to offer their expertise to the wider church. At the moment, I am serving as Treasurer of this group.

Meeting at the same time in Santa Fe were faith-and-science groups from a number of other denominations. About 50 people in all from the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches attended this the annual meeting of the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology & the Church, where we heard from leading scholars on topics that included some of the questions being raised in the areas of cognitive science and religion and on the complex relationships between venture capitalism, the scientific community and religion. Other areas touched upon included ethics, the environment, social justice and the use and interpretation of scripture.

Later in the summer, I traveled to Scargill House, a retreat center in northwest Yorkshire, England, for the Annual Gathering of the Society of Ordained Scientists (SOSc), of which I am a member. It is a religious order in the Church of England founded about 20 years ago. All of the members of the society are ordained and trained in some field of science. While most of the members belong to the Church of England, there are members from other denominations and others parts of the Anglican Communion. I serve as Co-convener of the Society's North American Chapter.

I can be reached by email at clofgren@osh.org.



• The Rev. Dr. Darrell Huddleston
  missionary, ecotheologian; former Regional Director, Heifer Project International

As a priest with a background in both theology and agriculture (farmer in Kansas), I have worked to integrate those two disciplines as they pertain to being a good steward of the natural world. I took my undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Southwestern College in 1964. In 1968 I received my seminary degree from Boston University. While in seminary I discerned a call to serve as a missionary. In preparation for going to Africa, where my family and I served in both Congo and Zimbabwe, I attended Kansas State on a Fellowship to study International Agricultural Development and Animal Science for one year.



Above, Darrell Huddleston with his first grandchild, Emma Grace

While in Africa I was placed in an academic setting teaching animal science and other agricultural subjects. It became apparent that such an institution was not doing much to build up the rural infrastructure of the region as the graduates all left for the city. We changed our emphasis to doing extension work with village farmers.

We were transferred to Zimbabwe where I continued doing extension work in village level agriculture. It was also in Zimbabwe that I made the transition from trying to import Western hi-tech agriculture with its attendant hi-inputs, to a sustainable agricultural systems approach. I owe that transition to what I was learning in the field about what worked, was affordable and available in terms of inputs, and to a week spent with E. F. Schumacher, famous author of "Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered"--although at that time he had yet to write the book. From those experiences I began to delve into organic systems and ones that promised not only to be sustainable but renewable.

In 1981 I completed my doctorate at Boston University with a dissertation on "Biblical Perspectives on World Hunger." I was then hired by Heifer Project International and served as a regional director for nearly 16 years. It proved to be an excellent way for me to unite my vocations and to be of use to those who are poor and hungry in the world. Those years were formative in further defining, learning, researching, writing and teaching about sustainable agriculture. While with Heifer I also took a year's sabbatical at the University of Kansas graduate school of Biology where I studied plant and avian ecology. I also am deeply grateful for my friendship with Wes Jackson of the Land Institute in Kansas and for what he has taught me.

Since retiring, still working part-time in a parish in Holden, Massachusetts, I have continued to try to help people understand that theology has much to say in terms of an ecological ethic and ecology has much to teach us in the world of theology. I continue to work and live in ways that care for the natural world and to promote a land ethic that promises hope for all God's creatures. It is good to be part of such an organization as the Network for Science, Faith and Technology.

And, oh yes, in case you are wondering, it bothers me deeply that the Kansas School board wants to redefine Science.

I can be reached by email at darrellandbunny@msn.com.


• Dr. Jim Jordan
  physicist, engineer, churchman, ST&F Committee member

I am a cradle Episcopalian. I grew up with the Episcopal College Ministry, Canterbury, at Ohio State and Michigan, with mentors like Denis Baly and David Anderson, scholars and faithful Christians. They helped me understand that reason, science, and technology are not antithetical to Christianity and faith.



Above, Jim Jordan

After earning a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Michigan and a few years at Rice University, I was seduced into a small IBM applied research lab where I was variously called an applied mathematician, engineer (electrical, power, petroleum--take your pick), and finally computer scientist. In all these roles, my interest was in using computers to solve real-world interdisciplinary problems. Inevitably, I started managing laboratories that did applied research and advanced product development. Since leaving IBM in 1993, I have been President of NGM Knowledge Systems, consulting on advanced manufacturing systems and management, directing international advanced manufacturing research collaboratives, and co-authoring two books, Next Generation Manufacturing: Methods and Techniques, and The Lean Company: Making the Right Choices.

In parallel, I became a more active Episcopalian, making the transition from followership to leadership--on the Parochial Church Council of Christ Church and member of the Board of the Seamen's Institute, Bangkok; member and Senior Warden on the Vestry of St. Jude's, Cupertino; EFM co-mentor for two EFM groups; and Delegate to Convention, Diocese of El Camino Real. For several years, I chaired El Camino Real's Committee on Culture and Technology, focused on the impacts on congregations and individual Christians of advances in technology and on El Camino Real's evolving mix of cultures. More recently, I have been member and Senior Warden of the Bishop's Committee of St. Innocent of Alaska Mission, Gualala, CA, and a member of the Common Mission Committee overseeing the blending of St. Innocent of Alaska with Gualala Lutheran Mission.

Gualala is 120 miles northwest of San Francisco, in an relatively unspoiled, isolated area of the Redwood Coast. In my spare time, I am involved with environmental activist groups that are trying to sustain and enhance the area's many environmental values.

I can be reached at jajordan@ix.netcom.com.