Elias Economou
An Orthodox View of the Ecological Crisis
7. The Church as an Ecological Institution.
The Church was founded by God as His people, from the beginning of mankind's creation. Μan was separated from his Creator through the original sin. Through God's incarnation in Christ, mankind was saved, purified and strengthened through grace, received by the Holy Spirit, to follow his Creator's will.
The Church as a divine institution organised in human bodies, has man's salvation as its main responsibility. Through the faith and activity of its members, "members of Christ", it has as its duty to extend salvation to the natural world, which suffers because man's fall.
Ecology is the framework in which man's salvation is realized. Salvation works in the opposite way from that of the fall. The mission of the Church for man's salvation and human activity in the environment are not identical; they are however unseparable. The ecological aspects and the behaviour of the believers have to be correlated with their faith in the Triune God, as the Creator, the Lord and the Saviour of man and world.
This ecological view of the Christian faith is clearly expressed in the Theology, worship and ascetic life of the Orthodox Church. God is worshipped as the "builder of all", as "the king of the Creation", as "the Lord of the creation" etc. Especially in the hymnography of Holy Week (Easter), the world is referred to as suffering for Christ's Passion, but also rejoicing in His Resurrection.
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