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Ezekiel 34 Initiative
Commission on Stewardship of the Environment
The Louisiana Interchurch Conference
Baton Rouge, LA
The Louisiana Interchurch Conference, located
in the region of Baton Rouge, Larose, West Monroe,
and Lafayette, has reason to remember that one
of the most frequent images in the Bible is that
of water: water that cleanses, water that heals.
Water surrounds the area of the Louisiana Interchurch
Conference in rivers, lakes, ocean waters and
in the delicately-balanced ecospheres of Louisiana’s
coastal wetlands, which are both an invaluable
ecological habitat and a critical part of the
region’s water supply.
In 1987, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference
formed the Commission on Stewardship of the Environment
as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that holds
that providing clean, safe water and preserving
and restoring the wetlands is a fundamental moral
responsibility. The Commission on Stewardship
of the Environment was doubly concerned for the
preservation of the wetlands as not only an issue
of environmental stewardship but also a matter
of social justice to ensure the health and safety
of local citizens, especially poor residents,
who depended upon the viability of the wetlands
for their own personal well-being.
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In 2001, the
Commission conducted a series of workshops in
churches statewide entitled, “Stewardship
of Louisiana’s Community Waters.”
More than 450 people attended the church workshops
in Lafayette, West Monroe, Baton Rouge and Larose.
And in 2003, the Commission distributed 10,000
brochures (PDF) advocating
state legislation creating Louisiana’s first
ever comprehensive water policy. The campaign,
titled the Ezekiel
34 Initiative (PDF), drew on the scriptural passage
from Ezekiel condemning those shepherds who tend
only to themselves and have not “restored
the weak, tended to the sick, bandaged the injured,
recovered the straggler, or searched for the lost.”
The legislation passed, and in 2004 and 2005,
the Initiative will continue to work at securing
national funding for the preservation and restoration
of the Louisiana coastal wetlands. The new Deputy
of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
has acknowledged the importance of the legislation,
and the Commission on Stewardship of the Environment’s
work on its behalf, crediting the Ezekiel 34 Initiative
brochures with playing a large role in the passage
of the legislature now being enacted.
Contact Information:
Louisiana Interchurch Conference
Ezekiel 34 Initiative
527 North Blvd. Fourth Floor
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802
Phone: (225) 344-0134
Fax: (225) 344-0142
Email: dankrutz@aol.com
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