TUESDAY, FEB. 5, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 3A
Bishop: Nature is God's gift to humans
AABON SHOWALTER/KANSAN
Bv Maauie Koerth
Bishop Kallistos Ware, center, visiting from Oxford University, chats with Father Alexander Bugarin of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church in Kansas City, Kan. Bishop Ware presented an informal lecture on the relationship between Christianity and the environment yesterday at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave.
By Maggie Koerth
Kansan staff writer
A prominent religious figure visited Lawrence yesterday to explain the connection between Christianity and environmental protection.
The Rt. Rev. Bishop Kallistos Ware spoke to about 60 students and members of the community at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave.
"This world around us, the created order, the world of nature is a gift. A gift of love from God," said Ware, a recently retired Spaulding lecturer from Oxford, London, England.
Ware is a bishop in the Eastern Orthodox church. He first became interested in the connections between Christianity and environmentalism in 1994 after Patriarch Bartholomew, the church's leader, organized a cruise where religious figures and scientists could discuss the environment.
About a year later, after a similar symposium in Santa Barbara, Calif., Bartholomew issued a statement that declared a crime against the natural world to be a sin.
Ware said this was true for two reasons.
The first is what he called "Eucharistic living," the idea that if nature is a gift, humans should treat it as such.
Ware said humans should live in thankfulness for God's creation. He said that in taking care of the earth, people are giving it back to God as an offering of love.
The second reason was parenthesis, the idea that God is in the world and the world is in God.
Ware said panentheism was different from pantheism, which believes
God is the world and the world is God.
"There is a crucial difference there because panentheism, while saying 'God is everywhere present and in all things,' also says 'God is above and beyond the world, while expressed within.' Ware said.
Thad Holcombe, ECM pastor, said panentheism was an alternate way of understanding creation.
"Traditional Western Christianity tends to see creation as a pyramid with man at the top, then woman and then
the animals and plants," he said.
"Panentheism sees creation more as a web where all things are interconnected and are just as important to God."
Tim Lang, Topeka senior, said he enjoyed the talk and thought the points made were valid, but he wished he saw more evidence of the Orthodox church acting on those points.
Ware said in the Western world the Orthodox church didn't start its own organizations, but did support already formed environmental groups.
"I don't know how involved they are in promoting environmental organizations, but I never hear anything about them," Lang said.
"But certainly in a country like Greece, we do have certain Orthodox groups there who are working for the environment," he said.
Contact Koerth at mkoerth@kansan.com. This story was edited by Brandon Stinnett.
Senate creates housing board
By Sarah Hill
Kansan staff writer
Bv Sarah Hill
Student Senate is one step closer to implementing a resource center designed to help students moving to or living off campus.
Justin Mills, student body president, appointed three senators to the Off-Campus Resource Center board at a Senate Meeting last week. The center, slated to open in the Kansas Union next spring, will provide students with information about off-campus housing.
"The center will have materials on all apartments and houses in town, legal services for landlords and tenants and information about utilities," said Kyle Browning, student body vice president and chairman of the resource center board.
Browning said that the center's director will gather and maintain information for students, so everything students might need to know about moving off-campus would be in one place.
Ben Burton, Student Executive Committee chairman, said the idea had been around informally for several years, but the new financial support and Mills' appointments would turn the idea into reality.
Burton said the start-up money came from the Reserve Account Task Force, a committee that distributes extra funds that were not being used. The money is now allocated by the Task Force to long-term projects and big one-time events.
Annmarie Komorowski, Chicago sophomore, said she would use such a center because she lives out-of-state.
"I don't know which neighborhoods are good and those that aren't," she said.
Contact Hill at shill@kansan.com. This story was edited by Andy Gassaway.
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