On eco-spirituality

Munro is ministry coordinator at Warwick Memorial United Methodist Church in Newport News. He said the congregation’s members decided three years ago that they would be as “green as we can” when they undertook a building addition. The church installed regular and compact fluorescent lights, a high-efficiency air conditioner and stocked the kitchen with plates and silverware, eradicating disposable plates and utensils.

"That cuts down the carbon footprint because we're not using paper,” Munro said. “We cut our garbage load in half."

Munro was interviewed by Steven Vegh in The Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 2. His comments were part of an article on "Spiritual environmentalism.”

Other comments in the article:

"Part of it is having an awareness of God's creation, awareness of how we, as Christians or people of faith, have to take care of the world," said Carolyn Spencer, a member of Williamsburg United Methodist’s year-old Green Initiative Committee.

People do say, 'That's not what I heard in Sunday school growing up.'

Vegh wrote that “perhaps no one knows more about Virginia's faith-based green movement” than the Rev. Pat Watkins, United Methodist clergyman who directs Virginia Interfaith Power & Light. Watkins performs energy assessments for churches, suggesting ways they can reduce energy use. He also talks to congregations about how they can "go green" and how environmentalism fits Christian theology.

Watkins told Vegh that Genesis 1:28, which tells humanity to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” over all creatures, has been read wrongly as justifying unrestrained exploitation of natural resources. He tells churches that a better interpretation of "dominion" is to care for living things.

"It is not a hard sell,” Watkins said of his audiences’ reaction, “and I'm a little surprised, to be honest with you. People do say, 'That's not what I heard in Sunday school growing up,' but it makes sense for them."