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Joining the dots between environmental social justice and 'ole time religion'

by Judi McLeod

September 9, 2002

There’s never any snoozing during sermons at New York City’s St. John the Divine Cathedral. Camels and elephants on their way to the altar could stampede congregants in the land of nod at St. John’s.

At 11 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 6, the "blessing of the animals" gets underway at St. John’s, in honour of St. Francis of Assisi day.

According to the Internet, "They usually have over 1,000 animals, including an elephant and a miniature horse!

"Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, whose life exemplified living in harmony with the natural world, St. Francis Day is one of the Cathedral’s most cherished since 1985.

"Paul Winter and the resident Omega and Forces of Nature dance troupes perform the dazzling Earth Mass/Missa Gaia as thousands of visitors participate, often holding their own pets on their laps.

"The celebration attracts throngs of ecologists, pet owners and animal rights activists. An eagle, a llama or an elephant has (sic) led a procession of animals to the altar to be blessed by Cathedral clergy."

Speakers have included atheist Dr. Carl Sagan, radical priest Fr. Thomas Berry--and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

Jano Cabrera, senior press attaché in Gore’s Washington election office told Canada Free Press he didn’t yet know whether Gore would be giving the sermon on Oct. 6.

"It’s his mother’s birthday that day," said Cabrera. When asked which birthday Gore’s mom was celebrating, he replied, "her 90th."

In a sermon on another St. Francis of Assisi ceremony, Gore called on the congregants to recognize that "God is not separate from the earth,"

The theme of his sermon would lead some to ponder what kind of tobacco he was smoking…"I saw children lying in the laps of large dogs and a boy bringing his stuffed animals to be blessed. I saw the not-yet famous elephant and camel march up the aisle; a lawyer who scoops the poop and enjoys being clown-for-a-day; a priest who finds himself covered with wiggling ferrets; a man and woman who meet when their leashes become enmeshed; a volunteer gardener marching to the altar with a bowl of compost and worms."

It seems a strange sermon and a strange scenario for a Christian church, but St. John’s–heavily interfaith and new age--is anything but conventional.

According to a tourist type description on the Internet, "The world’s largest Gothic cathedral, St. John the Divine has been a work in progress since 1892. Its sheer size is amazing enough–a nave that stretches two football fields and a seating capacity of 5,000–but keep in mind there is no steel structural support. The church is being built by using traditional Gothic engineering; blocks of granite and limestone are carved out by master masons and their apprentices, which may explain why instruction is still ongoing, more than 100 years after it began with no end in sight.

"But what makes this place so wonderful is that finishing isn’t necessarily the point."

Architecturally speaking, St. John the Divine may have no jarring physical points. But there is an imposing point in the Anglican church’s overall agenda.

"Through the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, St. John’s embraces an interfaith tradition," reads the description. "Internationalism is a theme found throughout the cathedral’s iconography; each chapel is dedicated to a different ethnic group.

"The Cathedral has become New York’s leading spiritual voice for urban regeneration. It has also become the most important religious institute in America to promote a new and spiritual ecological awareness, linking issues of ozone depletion, global warming and the like to fundamental questions of human responsibility.

"As the Cathedral embarks on its next hundred years, the world is becoming an increasingly medieval place. Empires and nations crumble, local oligarchies emerge, old ideals lose power, exile is the common condition of humankind.

"During the first 100 years, the Cathedral presided over the American century. From the beginning, it has reconciled opposites, serving as a conscience for the rich and a beacon for the poor. An advocate for working people, crusader against racism, and proponent of decent affordable housing."

And if that doesn’t sound more like social justice than it does `ole time religion’, read on.

"St. John the Divine is also home of the Gaia Institute and the Temple of Understanding.

"The Temple is an official United Nation’s NGO (Non Government Organization), making it a direct partner in the UN global agenda.

"St. John’s, headquarters of the "Christian" environmental movement is a new age and Episcopal church. For a time, a statue of Christa, a female Christ hung in its sanctuary."

People used to joke that they went to a round church "so the devil can’t corner me". The Prince of Darkness, known by a variety of other names, seems to have a presence at St. John’s.

"In 1969, the Bodman Foundation financed the Temple of Understanding, which established itself as the only religious chapel housed in the UN.

"The single largest financial promoters of the American Family Foundation for the past decade have been the Bodman and Achellis Foundations. These two separate foundations have overlapping trustees and officers and are both housed in the New York City law offices of Morris and McVeigh, which also acts as general counsel for both foundations.

"The Temple, of which anthropologist Margaret Meade, Grande dame of the New Age was an active supporter, is the creation of the Lucis Fund, a leading Satanic cult, founded in London in 1922, as the Lucifer Trust. The name was changed from Lucifer Trust to Lucis, to make the nature of the organization less conspicuous."

This would all be something of a lark were it not for the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), which also happens to make its headquarters at St. John the Divine Cathedral.

The partnership, launched in October 1993, has pumped millions of dollars into American churches to "place issues of environmental justice and sustainability permanently at the heart of religious life."

NRPE urges "behavourial changes" among the religions by distributing 53,000 "educational" kits to congregations across America. A green hotline keeps congregational participants informed on environmental legislation and provides clergy and lay leadership with training,

Masters at fundraising and letter-writing campaigns, today’s radical environmentalists are as cunning as they are insidious.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, pacifists, seeing funding drying up, changed ban-the-bomb placards for save-Mother Earth ones.

Environmentalists have now moved into organized religion, and are not likely to move back out.

Lest you think they have little chance of bringing their environment-first message to a pulpit near you, consider what they have already accomplished in academia.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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