THE ROLE OF P.C.E.A CHURCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION: A CASE STUDY OF LIMURU SUB-COUNTY IN KIAMBU COUNTY
Abstract
The corpus and the subject matter of this dissertation was to critically analyze the role of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Africa (P.C.E.A) in environmental stewardship and conservation, with special focus on Limuru Sub-County in Kiambu County. The methodology employed in this research was a case study design. Respondents were drawn from the top and local leadership of the P.C.E.A church and ordinary church members/congregants who were all interviewed. The target population from which the sample was drawn consisted of twenty (20) churches which were domiciled within Limuru Sub-County in Kiambu County. Out of a target population of 620 units, a sample population of 186 units was drawn from the three respondent categories was selected. From the findings of the study, it was revealed that though there appears commitment by the P.C.E.A church to environmental stewardship and conservation, most of these activities were still concentrated at the policy and strategy development level. They had not effectively been cascaded down to the local levels inorder that concrete and tangible results were realized. There lacked clear action plans and a monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the realization of tangible impacts at the local levels. Some of the challenges identified included lack of a clear, structured and coordinated way to execute environmental stewardship and conservation activities; Lack of sufficient financial resources for the program; Lack of appreciation of the connection existing between theology and environmental stewardship and the lack of education and awareness on the subject by some clergy members. Drawing from the findings, the study recommended a plethora of actions be taken by the P.C.E.A church inorder to cascade environmental stewardship activities to the local levels, as envisaged at the policy and strategy development level. It further recommended that future studies be undertaken inorder to foster the P.C.E.A church’s role in environmental stewardship and conservation, especially as regards the realm of clean and renewable energy technologies.
Key Words: Environmental Stewardship, Church Policies, P.C.E.A Church
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Anderson, Lorraine, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady (eds.), (1999), “A reader on nature and Literature and the environment: a culture”, New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc.
Austin, Richard Cartwright. (1988), “Hope for the land – nature in the Bible”, Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press.
Chetti, Daniel D. (1994) ed., “Ecology and development; theological perspectives”
Creswell, J. (2003), “Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach” (2nded.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-being of Earth and Humans eds.”, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Eckberg, Douglas Lee and T. Jean Blocker (2000), “Christianity, environmentalism, and the theoretical problem of fundamentalism”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 35(4): pp. 343-355.
Francis Schaeffer, (1993), “The environmental crises”, Crossway books, Leicester, UK
Francis A. Schaeffer, (1982), “How Should We Then Live? In the Complete Works of Francis A.” Francis Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview (Westchester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1982), 5:159.
Gamble Harry T. (1995), “Books and readers in the early church - a history of early Christian texts”, New Haven, Yale University Press.
G.E Gunton (1992), “Christ and creation”, Putemooter Press Cumbra, UK
Gifford, R. (2008), “Toward a comprehensive model of social dilemmas”, In A. Biel, D. Eek, T. Garling, & M. Gustafson (Eds), “New Issues and Paradigms in Research on Social Dilemmas”, (pp 265-280), Springer, New York
Gelernter, David. (1997), “The immorality of radical environmentalism: Protecting nature is a good thing, but there’s something wrong when rats are valued more than humans”, Citizen 11(2): 1-4.
Harrison, Peter. (1999) “Subduing the earth: Genesis 1, early modern science, and the exploitation of nature”, The Journal of Religion 79(1): 86.
HavaTirosh-Samuelson (2002)”Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word”, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Ian Bradley (1990), “God is Green”, Longman and Todd publishers
Joranson, Philip N. and Ken Butigan (eds.) (1984), “Cry of the environment: rebuilding the Christian creation tradition”, Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company.
Jonathan A. Patz et al., (April 2000), “The Potential Health Impacts of Climate Variability and Change for the United States: Executive Summary of the Report of the Health Sector of the U.S. National Assessment, Environmental Health Perspectives”, 108
Kasser, Tim and Allen D. Kanner (eds.), (2004), “Psychology and Consumer Culture. The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World”, Journal of Social Issues 56(3): 491-508.
Kaplan, Stephen (2000), “Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior”.
Kothari, C. R. (2004), “Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques” (2nd Ed.). New Delhi: New Age International limited.
Laudato SI’ 2015 Paulines publication
Martinez-Alier, Joan (2002), “The Environmentalism of the Poor. A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation”, Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, USA: Edward Elgar.
Merritt, Jonathan (2010), “Green like God: unlocking the divine plan for our planet”, Faith Words, New York, USA
M. E. Tucker and J.A. Grimseds (1994), “Worldviews and ecology, Religious, Philosophy and the environment”, Orbis Books, New York, USA
Palmer, Margaret, et al. (2004), “Ecology for a Crowded Planet. Science”, Vol. 304 (28 May 2004): 1251-1252.
Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, (1981) “Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species”, Random House, New York, USA
Peterson, M. N., and J. Liu (2008), “Impacts of religion on environmental worldviews: the Teton Valley case. Society and Natural Resources”, 21:704-718.
P.C.E.A General Assembly Ressoultions 2007 & 2015, Presbyterian Publishers
Sean McDonagh (2001), “To care for the earth” Cassell publishers
Sean McDonagh (1990), “The Greening of the Church”, Cassel publishers
Stern, Paul C. and Thomas Dietz. (1994), “The value basis of environmental concern”, Journal of Social Issues, 50(3): 65-84.
Stern, P.C. (2000), “Towards a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior”. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 407-424.
Stern, Paul C. (1992), “Psychological dimensions of global environmental change”, Annual Review of Psychology 43: 269-302.
Sherkat, D. E., and C. G. Ellison (2007), “Structuring the religion-environment connection: identifying religious influences on environmental concern and activism”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46:71-85.
Schultz, P. W., L. Zelezny, and N. J. Dalrymple. (2000), “A multinational perspective on the relation between Judeo-Christian religious beliefs and attitudes of environmental concern. Environment and Behavior”, 32:576-591.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn; Grim, John (2013), “Ecology and Religion”, Island Press, Washington, USA, (pp.6)
White, Lynn. (1967), “The historical roots of our ecological crisis Science”, 155(3767): 1203-1207.
Worster, Donald (1993), “The wealth of nature: environmental history and the ecological imagination”, Oxford University Press, New York, USA
Wangari Maathai (2010), “Replenishing the Earth”, Doubleday publishers
Watling Tony (2009), “Ecological imaginations in the world religions: an ethnographic analysis”, Continuum publishers, London, UK
Weoley Granberg Michaelson (1988), “Ecology and life: Accepting our environmental responsibility”, Word books, Waco Texas, USA (Pg. 116)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v5i3.807
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
PAST ISSUES:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.