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By Lloyd Mackey
 MARKKU Kostamo dropped into Ottawa a few weeks ago, to raise awareness in this very political community, for the work of A Rocha.
Rocha, a Portuguese word meaning "rock", became the moniker for A Rocha a quarter-century ago, when a Brit named Peter Harris founded a field study centre known as Cruzinha in that Mediterranean nation. Since he began that work, the centre has hosted thousands of visitors and, according to A Rocha promo material: . . . produced reams of vital scientific research, worked toward the protection of the nearby Alvor estuary, introduced thousands of Portuguese school children to care of the environment and lived out the gospel in the local community. Fast forward to Ottawa in 2007.
The core of Kostamo's message is that A Rocha has quietly built into a Christian-based environmental and conservation movement that has two physical presences in Canada, in the Pembina Valley, Manitoba and the Little Campbell River basin in Surrey, BC. (It is coincidental but entirely appropriate that both field study centres are located just a stone's throw from the American border, and are parked in watersheds that have links to both Canada and the United States.)
Kostamo makes the straightforward point that A Rocha needs encouragement, support and understanding from the Christian community, in order to get its message across.
"We want to work with churches and Christian educational institutions," he points out, suggesting that when that kind of support is available, politicians, scientists and business people are more prepared to buy in.
I asked him about those Christian groups who believe that Christian-rooted environmentalism is "earthism" and detracts Christians from paying attention to, for example, family values issues.
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Kostamu cautiously avoids getting into an either/or argument. He simply points to A Rocha's invitation to Christians to "join us on this journey as we show God's love for all creation."
But obviously, the development of Christian environmentalism, particularly in religiously and politically conservative venues, in Canada, requires a fair amount of understanding-creation (pun intended).
And that was part of the reason for a conference involving A Rocha, which took place at Regent College in the University of BC in Vancouver, on November 2 and 3. During his Ottawa visit, Kostamo took some efforts to let a fair number of the major environmental players know about the west coast event.
Entitled 'Creating Wealth and the Created World,' the conference included such headliners as former federal politician Preston Manning, who has been articulating the green conservative concept; Shell Canada president Clive Mather; and Loren Wilkinson, a long time Christian environmentalist associated with Regent College.
As soon as there is information available on how to access papers from the conference, I intend to let OttawaWatch readers know.
But, as an appetite-whetter, let me quote from a question and answer posed in the conference brochure: What does a Christian worldview have to offer in this hostile climate of monologue, "spin," and blame? A Biblical understanding of humanity's purpose says that we are called to love God, love people and care for creation by creatively unlocking the potential of the garden-planet that we steward. * * *
Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006) He can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.
November 8/2007
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