PRC/PEC: Our First 20 Years

Presbyterians for Restoring Creation/

Presbyterians for Earth Care: 

Our First 20 Years

by Nancy Corson Carter

PEC is excited about celebrating a proud history at our national conference, September15-18 at Montreat Conference Center! A special feature will be an evening of worship, recognition, and reception focused on our 20^th anniversary. Our theme for that evening, Thursday, September 17, is “Inheriting a Sacred Trust for the Future.”

A little background: in mid-September, 1994, about 40 persons gathered at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville for an “Environmental Consultation” called by the Environmental Justice Office of the national church. One item on their to-do list was to “Help create an environmental justice fellowship, an outside group, to impact the PCUSA.” By the 1995 General Assembly, in Cincinnati, Ohio, a Steering Committee had prepared bylaws and organized the first of our regular General Assembly luncheons, with Dr. John Fife as speaker. Membership Secretary, Bill Knox, sent out a call for support: “We INVITE Presbyterians who hear the cry of creation, human and nonhuman, as God’s call for stewards for an endangered planet. JOIN US in this fellowship to restore creation, as we seek to be faithful to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.”

With gratitude we remember these founders who were called to support the new mission initiative, RESTORING CREATION FOR ECOLOGY AND JUSTICE, adopted by the 1990 General Assembly (the story goes that it was passed by a 97% vote and greeted by all present rising and singing the Doxology!). And our gratitude extends to all who have served, leaders and members too, since that time.

We’d appreciate your help in collecting photos and stories to share. So we hope you will visit our 20^th celebration special website, www.PECmemories.com. We invite you to write down special stories and memories you have about the life and times of Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC) and Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC).

We look forward to your joining us in this festive thanksgiving for the sacred trust we’ve inherited to carry into the future.

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Nancy Corson Carter, Ph.D., is a publishing poet and writer, facilitates an Earth Care Congregation in Chapel Hill NC, and is active in the Shalem Society for Contemplative Leadership. She is Professor Emerita (of Humanities) at Eckerd College, and was Moderator of PRC from 1999-2005.