I wrote Practically Green with Love in response to a situation I encountered while in seminary at Vanderbilt Divinity School, in Nashville, TN. At my teaching parish congregation, where I worked about 10 hours a week during the 1996-97 academic year, one of my goals was to build environmental awareness. While there, I realized that the ELCA had a wealth of resources available for just such a situation. The problem was that I didn’t know which ones to use nor how to use them. I found myself wishing for a guide that would summarize the available resources and suggest how to introduce them into a congregation where this was a new topic. In my later years at Vanderbilt, I decided to write such a resource guide as my senior project. What I turned in to Vanderbilt was a draft document that eventually grew into this handbook. It has now been four years since the idea for this handbook emerged, and there are many people to thank.

It is to the credit of the Vanderbilt Divinity School faculty that they encouraged me in this choice of senior project format. The majority of VDS senior projects take the form of academic research papers on theology, biblical studies, ethics, and the like. This project was a departure from that style, but my advisors were enthusiastic about this being a piece that would make a practical contribution to the life of the church by putting theology into practice. I especially thank the following professors: Lloyd Lewis, for guidance during an independent study course on environmental education materials in other denominations; Dr. Sallie McFague, for allowing my study of religion and environment resources on the internet as part of her Ecological Theology course and for agreeing to be a reader for the senior project; and Dr. Renita Weems, my advisor, for her enthusiasm about the practical nature of the project, for her feedback, and for being a reader of the project.

When I decided in 1997 to write such a guide as a school project, I called Dr. Job Ebenezer at the ELCA Office of Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education. I asked him what would be useful to include and whether his office might want to make use of it when it was done. Job was immediately enthusiastic about the project and continued throughout to be an advocate for its completion and distribution. I am most grateful for his enthusiasm, support, and gracious patience, even through the many delays this project suffered in subsequent years. Without him, this handbook would not have gone beyond my file drawer of seminary papers.

Job put me in contact with the members of the Stewardship of Creation Task Force of the Southeast United States Synod of the ELCA. They graciously agreed to help critique and manage the project--most certainly with no idea of the magnitude and duration of what they were entering into. These hardworking volunteer lay people are dedicated to and passionate about caring for God’s gift of creation, and their excitement about the project consistently bolstered my own energy level at times when I grew weary of the work. They spent much time meeting or talking with me, reading drafts of the project, making excellent suggestions, and finding ways to produce and distribute the handbook. I was in most frequent contact with Virginia Wiley, Geri Spring, Bill Grabill, and Lou Laux, and am indebted to them for not giving up on the project, despite the fact that it has now been three years since they first agreed to work on it. Because most of our work together has been done long-distance, there are many others on the committee that I met only once or not at all, but I am grateful for their help as well.

A particularly helpful contribution of the Stewardship of Creation Task Force was to locate a graphic designer, Kathy Hefner, who volunteered her time to rework the layout of the handbook. Thanks to her, this document has a more professional and attractive appearance than what my mediocre facility with WordPerfect’s graphics capabilities and my slow, crash-prone computer could provide. We have never met, but I appreciate her gift.

Several congregations have made helpful contributions to the development of this handbook. At Trinity Lutheran Church in Nashville, TN, Rev. Laura Barbins (at the time Rev. Laura Hocker) was my original teaching parish supervisor. She encouraged me in my initial goal of increasing environmental awareness there, and gave me helpful feedback on the handbook material later. Thanks also to Rev. Delmer Chilton for encouragement and for comments, and to him and the church council for allowing me to use office space during the summer and fall of 1998. I appreciate member Lisa Dordal’s critiques, as well as her participation with several other members on the environment committee that worked with me during my teaching parish year.

After I completed my M.Div. At Vanderbilt, I studied at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for a year. Dr. David Rhoads, who advised the LSTC student environmental organization, Green Zone, and who coordinated the church and environment web site, Web of Creation, was extremely supportive. I thank him for his help and good will, and for offering to include the handbook on the Web of Creation site (www.webofcreation.org). Thanks also to the members of Green Zone, who critiqued the handbook with the eyes of future pastors.

While at LSTC, I again did teaching parish work, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church. I thank Rev. Paul Koch and the education committee for allowing me to pilot an adult Sunday School class based on the handbook. The comments of class members were helpful and encouraging, and helped me learn more about the environmental concerns of urban congregations.

Thank you to all the other individuals who encouraged me and/or critiqued the material along the way, but especially Vanderbilt classmates Tanya Becker and Connie Scheid, and Jim Mulligan of Earth Ministry in Seattle, WA. Finally, I thank my parents, Rev. Ted and Judy Scheidt, for instilling in me the two loves that came together in this project--love of God and love of the natural world with which God has gifted us.

Most importantly, thanks be to God: to the Father for creating such a beautiful world, to the Holy Spirit for moving so many people to help birth this project, and to the Son, because

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of this grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

Christina L. Scheidt
Hawick, Minnesota
Spring 2001

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